By Choi He-suk

With advances in automotive and technology, cars have gotten smarter to offer better protection and comfort for both drivers and passengers.

Today's high-end vehicles come with a host of electronic equipment designed to make driving easier and more comfortable, such as cruise control and assisted parking systems.

Cruise control is one of the oldest smart automobile control systems around. At its simplest, the basic function of cruise control is to keep a vehicle moving at the speed set by the driver.

As technology has evolved, so have cruise control systems. Smart cruise control systems available today use laser sensors to detect the distance between itself and the vehicle in front, automatically controlling the engine and brakes to keep the two vehicles a safe distance apart.

Other features that help the driver control the vehicle's movement in relation to the road and other vehicles include lane departure warning systems and wide-scanning cruise control that can detect vehicles in adjacent lanes as well as those in front of the vehicle.

Using similar principles, the Swedish carmaker Volvo has developed a vehicle equipped with collision-prevention systems.

Equipped in the XC60, the City Safety and Collision Warning with Autobrake system measures factors such as the distance between the XC60 and the vehicle in front of it, plus the car's speed to calculate the likelihood of a collision and the braking force required to avoid an accident.

The warning system then alerts the driver and applies the brakes automatically if the driver does not react to warning signals.

Assisted parking is another technology carmakers have rolled out to woo motorists.

Last year, Volkswagen launched the compact sport utility vehicle Tiguan on the local market and introduced the country's first vehicle with an assisted parking system.

The system uses sensors to determine whether there is enough space available when parking. If so, it parks the car automatically. Other than using the brakes and the accelerator, all the driver has to do is bring the car up to the parking space and press a button to initiate the system.

The Mercedes-Benz MyB is another vehicle available here with a semi-automatic parking system. As with the Tiguan's, MyB's assisted parking system requires the driver to control the car's speed when parking.

However, a car able to park itself without the driver in the vehicle could become a reality in the near future.

The German luxury specialist BMW is currently developing a system that allows the driver to park the vehicle with a remote control.

But carmakers are trying to take the intelligence of automobiles to a whole new level, in which the driver has to do little more than turn the engine on and off.

Although a long way from becoming commercially available, General Motors Corp. has successfully showcased the possibility of developing a fully automated vehicle.

ROBOCOP OF CARS | The Boss. It's a fully automated car that requires no human intervention, at least for 100km.

Named the Boss, the Chevrolet Tahoe-based vehicle was developed in collaboration with the Carnegie Melon University was able to complete a 100-kilometer course without human intervention in a competition sponsored by the United States' Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

According to the company, such automated vehicle control systems can produce vehicles that prevent collisions. In addition, the ability of a vehicle to prevent collisions will allow cars to become lighter and more fuel efficient as heavy components designed to protect passengers will become less essential.

However, the "cleverness" of automotive components is not limited to control systems and other electronic equipment.

Carmakers and auto parts makers have even developed components that are able to repair themselves.

Examples of self-repairing components include Nissan Motor Co.'s Scratch Shield Paint and the Mobility Tires used in the Volkswagen Passat.

Nissan's Scratch Shield Paint comes with a clear coating of gel-type material that oozes into minor scratches that may be caused by fingernails to smooth over the area. The Mobility Tires have an inner layer of rubber compound that fills in punctures. According to the company, Mobility Tires are able to automatically repair punctures up to 5 millimeters in diameter without losing pressure.