If you ask a group of people what type of vehicle best represents the fabric of America, you are likely to hear “the pickup truck.” It’s easy to understand why; this vehicle has been the primary mode of transportation for working men and their equipment for close to 100 years now. It has played such a critical role in the building of America that it’s almost hard to believe that there was a time when there weren’t any.

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What every manufacturer wants is solid brand recognition. When a product becomes a recognizable brand, the buying public recognizes it for the sum of attributes that is historically associated with the product. Hopefully in a good way. Take the crest that has adorned Cadillacs for over a century. When most people see the Cadillac crest, they usually think of large, luxury American sedans with all the creature comforts. And the owners? Generally older and in most cases retired.

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Supercars are cars that statement cars that spare no expense in the name of performance and style. Just about every manufacturer has made them with the intention of getting great press coverage and winning important races. The Alfa Romeo Tipo 33 is good example. According to Brown’s Alfa Romeo of Patchogue, a local Alfa Romeo dealer in Patchogue, NY, the Tipo 33 is a classic supercar. It has been considered to be one of the best-looking roadsters ever made but was actually built to win races, specifically the 24 Heures du Mans or “LeMans.”

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Boxer engines get their name from the way that the pistons move. The pistons move horizontally, in an opposing manner sort of like two boxers punching at each other. Over the years, this unique design has been used on a lot of vehicles. Boxer engines are an elegant engine design and offer natural advantages for automotive design engineers.

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As a rule I like to be in control of a car completely while I’m driving, to the point where I often don’t even use cruise control. While some of that is wanting to experience the thrill of driving completely, there is a small part in the back of my mind that doesn’t trust leaving something so potentially urgent in control of a machine.

When it comes to features like self-parking cars, or even self-driving cars, then, I tend to steer clear.

However, looking at it practically, automated cars are the wave of the future, and will in some measure become commonplace in all models. Technicians at Volvo are working to make sure that inevitability isn’t one driven entirely by consumer curiosity and vanity, but rather filling basic needs to enhance driving for everyone.

Specifically, they are trying to perfect an automated braking system in commercial trucks that would allow them to avoid major collisions should the driver be dozing off at the wheel, or otherwise unable to properly react in time. Unlike some other “innovations” in the field like self-parking cars, this design appears to be frighteningly effective.

The truck in that video is moving at a steady pace of 40 MPH, and is about to hit two vehicles (one completely stopped, and the other moving much slower). In both cases though the automated braking system kicks in completely outside of the influence of the driver,once its realized the driver is not reacting, and brings the truck to a stop right before it collides with the vehicle.

What’s really impressive, yet somewhat scary, is the reaction time of this system. Obviously not wanting to “jump the gun” so to speak on stopping a vehicle automatically, the system waits until the last possible moment to initiate braking, and as such stops the truck mere inches away from danger, making the results look like something that wouldn’t be out of place in a Hollywood driving sequence.

While no specific plans regarding the implementation of this system in future vehicles are present as of yet, with Europe requiring similar systems to be mandatory by 2015, you can expect to hear more about this soon from Volvo and more manufacturers.

It might be scary to essentially trust your life in the hands of a system, but if they can really get it to perform as well in real road environments as they do in these situations, this could be the start of a safer, though still almost too close for comfort, future