What is included with Mazda’s I-Activsense Safety Suite? – Jalopnik

Advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) remain incredibly popular today. The 2025 AutoPacific The Future Attribute Demand Study shows that nine of the fifteen most sought-after car features involve safety technologies; first place went to hands-free driving systems such as GM’s Super Cruise and Ford’s BlueCruise. While it’s true that Mazda doesn’t offer a similar setup among its many safety technologies, the brand still has you covered.

Like most automakers, Mazda has tried to give its best ADAS technologies a catchy brand name. The i-Activsense can be compared to those of Kia Drive Wise, Subaru EyeSight, Ford Co-Pilot360 and Honda Sensing, to name just a few examples. And while many of them offer similar feature lists, it’s important to check the details if you’re looking for something specific. For example, Mazda’s radar cruise control technology is standard on the cheapest model in the brand’s range, the Mazda3 sedan. However, it is not factored into the base price of a Mazda MX-5 Miata, which could be an example of the brand recognizing that most Miata owners prefer to drive themselves, as well as the fact that next-generation models will still offer a manual transmission.

The i-Activsense goodies that come standard on the Miata include lane departure warning, lane keeping, blind spot monitoring, a driver attention monitor, forward automatic braking, and rear cross traffic alert. But that’s just the beginning, and depending on the exact vehicle, the package can be expanded to include adaptive front lighting, rear automatic braking, intersection turn assist and more.

Mazda’s i-Activsense features rely on cameras in addition to radar, lidar and sonar sensors to monitor road conditions and traffic, and work with other internal systems to help drivers avoid collisions. Examples include Mazda’s automatic emergency braking systems, which can warn a driver of possible front or rear collisions and brake automatically; Automatic forward braking is standard across Mazda’s new model range. It’s also worth pointing out that Mazda’s warning technology can recognize not only other vehicles, but also pedestrians, cyclists and animals. The brand often refers to its forward automatic braking technology as Smart City Brake Support – for low-speed driving – and Smart Brake Support for full coverage.

Similarly, Mazda’s blind spot warning and intersection assistance systems are able to identify potential hazards on the road, warn the driver and automatically intervene (if necessary) to help avoid a collision. The former is especially worthwhile today, as blind spots continue to expand to accommodate modern design choices. The latter can help people identify and deal with oncoming traffic, vehicles or otherwise, when turning at an intersection. The name of the features available for Frontal Traffic Avoidance Assistance speaks for itself.

This is probably also a good place for another type of driver alert. If Mazda emphasizes that “these newer safety features, like all safety features, are not a substitute for safe and attentive driving, which is always the driver’s responsibility.” Mazda’s driver attention monitor can help with this by encouraging them not to lose focus.

These technologies are designed to take some of the stress out of typical driving situations, such as safely following traffic with adaptive cruise control. This can be supplemented with technologies such as lane centering and traffic jam assistance to handle stop-and-go situations without the driver having to constantly brake and accelerate. The i-Activsense package can also make parking a breeze thanks to a standard rearview camera – or an available 360-degree monitoring setup with ‘see-through’ functionality. This feature allows the car’s computer to process images from different cameras to display images with the car itself cropped out for even better visibility. Adaptive headlights, which turn with the steering wheel, can also improve visibility.

Also in the mix are automatic high beams, traffic sign recognition, rear seat warnings and secondary collision mitigation. The latter system activates after a collision serious enough to trigger the airbags to deploy. It applies the brakes and turns on the emergency flashers to prevent the car from getting into another collision. All in all, the available Active Driving Display monitors the i-Activsense suite of technologies. You certainly wouldn’t find those technologies in something like Mazda’s suitcase car, but it’s not designed for safety in the same way that regular models are anyway.