Other incremental improvements range from solar panels that run the air conditioning during stand-still, so fuel is not used to cool down the car, to small electric motors tucked away in the doors and powered by batteries that are charged when a car is braking.
This is somewhat akin to capturing the kinetic energy of an electric car via regenerative braking a feature found in the Toyota Prius.
The technology in question is KERS (kinetic energy recovery system) for capturing and storing the car's braking energy instead of wasting it as heat.
Meanwhile, there's some code in the stability-control system dubbed Agile Handling Assist, through which the car, actively braking one of more wheels, helps drivers hold their line with smaller steering inputs.
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The distance is monitored using sensors mounted at the front of the car, and braking or acceleration are applied automatically to ensure that it remains constant, thus reducing the chances of a collision.
As the anticipated time-to-impact decreases, CMS prepares the car for sudden braking by moving the brake pads nearer to the brake disks, and finally, when the system concludes that a collision is less than one second away, it starts to apply the brakes itself.
Basically, using the car's "engine braking" is what let us stay off the brake pedal.
As in Formula 1, the 400-volt battery is charged by means of targeted recuperation during braking whilst the car is being driven.
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You have to know how to ease your car around the track, braking at just the right time and flooring the accelerator at other moments.
Combined with standard stability control that uses the antilock braking system to keep the car headed in the direction you're steering, we found the W8 unstoppable, even during a near-whiteout snowstorm that had a lot of SUV drivers skidding all over the road.
They include changes to the aerodynamics, the re-introduction of slick, untreaded tyres after 11 years with grooved rubber and the potential use of a kinetic energy recovery system (Kers), which stores energy that would have been dissipated during braking and reapplies it while the car is accelerating.
Research is being done on autonomous braking technology, which can stop a car when other vehicles or obstacles get too close, and lane-keeping support, which applies a correcting force through the steering if the driver drifts out of their lane.
If the car begins to oversteer or understeer, the system applies braking on individual wheels to restore stability.
At present, regenerative braking adds between 20kg and 30kg to an F1 car's weight.
Mercedes-Benz's Distronic Plus system, for instance, contains radar-based sensors as part of its cruise-control system, to keep the car at a preset distance from the vehicle in front, braking automatically if the gap narrows quickly.
Suddenly, another car, preparing to leave, drove straight at them before abruptly braking.
The paddles also give the driver control of regenerative braking, which translates the kinetic energy that is dissipated when the car slows down into electricity that tops up the batteries.
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Car manufacturers might even develop vehicles that integrate the driver's thoughts with the braking or steering system.
This slowing effect is used by Lotus to simulate engine braking, in which resistance inside an internal-combustion engine decelerates the car.
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If the car is anything other than that, if it suffers from any measure of instability at the rear under braking or into the corner, then he is not good at improvising a different style.
The systems are integrated to include automatic emergency braking and passenger compartment crash preparation, which does things like closes windows and tightens seat belts if the car senses an impending crash.
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