It has a rear-mounted video camera for safe backing up, driver's-side knee air bag and "adaptive" xenon headlights linked to the steering system that swivel as much as 15 degrees into a turn.
The rookie who was probably the best prepared this season is Valterri Bottas at the Williams team, who was carefully groomed and given track time last year during Friday practice sessions when he was a back-up driver for the team.
As a safety measure, a back-up driver will ride along during tests who can take over in case of emergency.
Porsche and others claim to be saving up to 5% with so-called Start/Stop systems that temporarily shut off an engine rather than idling, automatically firing it back up when the driver's foot lifts off the brake.Still other makers are using battery power to enhance performance, including both Ferrari, with its new LaFerrari supercar, and McLaren with its own "ultracar," the P1.
"Back up!" the truck-driver snarled.
Systems designed to help drivers back up typically include rear cameras that could show the driver the scene behind the vehicle on an in-vehicle video display.
Footage shows the men hoisting the injured driver back up to the street as smoke billows from the vehicle behind them.
After it's over, we watch the pairs of headlights glide in a neat line back up Main Street, dispersing as drivers turn off toward home.
It's meant to back up the requirement that drivers pick up passengers only in the short-term parking structure, where they pay $3 for the first half hour of use, a charge passed on to users via the app.
You can also choose the "Invert" option, which means that the program will back up all of the drivers that you leave unselected.
In 2008, Congress passed legislation requiring the Department of Transportation to expand the rearward field of view when backing up so drivers can detect children and pedestrians who may otherwise be completely hidden in the blind zone behind passenger vehicles.
