Start with the basics. Make sure each passenger is buckled in, and that they have the seat angle and headrest etc at an appropriate position. I actually have some automation whenever I enter my car (Tasker yay!) that do things I tend to forget to do, and opens up a talking checklist that I go through before starting the car or after parking. (I can make a post if there’s interest.)
I bought a dashcam to help improve my driving (plans before every drive, then a critical review of drives). I also found good channels for advanced driving (e.g., Advanced Driving and Reg Local, from the UK) and more basic stuff (Conquer Driving, Advanced Driving again, Conduite Facile) to refresh.
In addition, I recommend cars with active safety technology. Even something like Adaptive Cruise Control, which keeps a safe distance from the car in front of you, reduces your cognitive overhead by quite a bit, and allows you to monitor the situation around you better (far, near, behind, etc). Add to that automatic braking, blind spot monitoring, alerts when there’s cross traffic while reversing, lane keeping, 360° cameras around the car etc, and you’ve already prevented many of the crashes you might have gotten yourself into.
And finally, you’ll want the actual protection in case of a crash. Find a bunch of safety tests, and find the ones with good safety ratings in multiple markets. Look at pictures of crashes. The more the car is shredded, and the more the passenger compartment is intact, the more likely you are to escape without a serious injury.
ETA: In terms of companies which I think are doing well with safety consiousness, I like Toyota (post 2018-ish) a lot, since they’re providing advanced safety features even at the most basic trims. Also, consider using OpenPilot (CommaAI) instead of stock, because it tends to work better.
Start with the basics. Make sure each passenger is buckled in, and that they have the seat angle and headrest etc at an appropriate position. I actually have some automation whenever I enter my car (Tasker yay!) that do things I tend to forget to do, and opens up a talking checklist that I go through before starting the car or after parking. (I can make a post if there’s interest.)
I bought a dashcam to help improve my driving (plans before every drive, then a critical review of drives). I also found good channels for advanced driving (e.g., Advanced Driving and Reg Local, from the UK) and more basic stuff (Conquer Driving, Advanced Driving again, Conduite Facile) to refresh.
In addition, I recommend cars with active safety technology. Even something like Adaptive Cruise Control, which keeps a safe distance from the car in front of you, reduces your cognitive overhead by quite a bit, and allows you to monitor the situation around you better (far, near, behind, etc). Add to that automatic braking, blind spot monitoring, alerts when there’s cross traffic while reversing, lane keeping, 360° cameras around the car etc, and you’ve already prevented many of the crashes you might have gotten yourself into.
And finally, you’ll want the actual protection in case of a crash. Find a bunch of safety tests, and find the ones with good safety ratings in multiple markets. Look at pictures of crashes. The more the car is shredded, and the more the passenger compartment is intact, the more likely you are to escape without a serious injury.
ETA: In terms of companies which I think are doing well with safety consiousness, I like Toyota (post 2018-ish) a lot, since they’re providing advanced safety features even at the most basic trims. Also, consider using OpenPilot (CommaAI) instead of stock, because it tends to work better.