These days, as consumers covet the latest gadgets and technologic trends to ease and organize their everyday lives, we’re also seeing the advances of technology make their way into the development safety features in the automotive industry.

While heated seats and automated voice dialing are sought after amenities, carmakers are now turning their attention to added features that are more than just luxuries – but lifesavers.

Inflatable seatbelts – it’s the latest innovation of the Ford Motor Company that aims to improve car safety and perhaps the company’s image. Next year the carmaker will feature the new seat belt in its Explorer SUV before it rolls out in all vehicles.

New Mercedes Benz ads tout unseen features like a high-frequency radar transceiver that scans the road ahead for any kind of roadblock – cars, deer and more. Active Cruise Control allows a driver to set a desired speed and if traffic slows, the car reduces speed and sets a safe following distance to the car ahead.

As consumers are looking for improved and smarter safety features that set cars apart, we can’t help but think about the risks – or potential risks -- of these new features.

In the 1960s, laws passed that required all cars to have lap belts for all passengers. It was a huge move that kicked off automobile safety around the world.

In the past 50 years, technology has taken over with air bag sensors, cars with reverse cameras, antilock brakes (ABS) and more. The MSNBC article talking about inflatable seat belts also refers s to the vision of completely automated cars – the driver enters and the car drives itself.

These are features that can certainly save lives, but what happens when technology fails? Recently, discussion has increased around the effectiveness of air bag sensors. In many new cars there are sensors in the front passenger side of a car that use a number of factors like weight and seat position to determine the force of which to deploy should there be an accident -- or disarm it completely, if needed.

Lexus was recently sued over the air bags in its 2007 ES350 models. The suit alleges the vehicle’s air bag classification sensor doesn’t work properly in the front passenger seat, sometimes failing to trigger the correct front air bag during an accident.

As tools and technology evolve not only in the auto industry, but in all aspects of our daily lives, these are issues that will soon need to be addressed – it’s not question of ease and luxury, but rather safety and security.