From the outset, advanced driver assistance systems have made a ton of safety promises. From being marketed as guardian angels to claims of crash reduction, the initial benefits seemed numerous. However, all manner of electronic assists get lumped into this one category, and not all are as they seem. In fact, a recent study from the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety suggests that some advanced driver assistance systems like Level 2 semi-autonomy and lane-departure avoidance systems might not actually work to reduce crashes. In the words of IIHS senior vice president for research Jessica Cicchino, “With no clear evidence that partial automation is preventing crashes, users and regulators alike should not confuse it for a safety feature.”
To be perfectly clear, we aren’t talking about all purely safety-focused advanced driver assistance systems here. Automatic emergency braking works, and although HLDI data of the makes and models studied show small decreases in overall collision claims, these decreases are still measurable. Plus, that’s not even accounting for the damage mitigation aspect of automatic emergency braking, as these systems can seriously slow a vehicle down before the point of impact is reached, reducing the severity of rear-end collisions.
However, Level 2 automation, a combination of active vehicle speed control and lane-maintaining assistance might not be nearly as effective at preventing collisions. Looking into collision data on Nissan Rogue crossovers equipped with Nissan’s ProPILOT Assist Level 2 advanced driver assistance system, IIHS research found that the upgraded LED headlights frequently bundled into models with this system might actually be responsible for a significant majority of reduced collision rates on these models, as crash reduction rates were the same below 37 mph when some substantial system capabilities are locked out, are identical to those at higher speeds, and the most significant rate changes compared to models without ProPILOT Assist happened in the dark.
Even lane-maintaining assistance features might not actually work as promised. When studying crash data from BMW cars, IIHS found that “neither lane departure prevention alone nor the same feature combined with partial automation had a significant effect on crash rates, either on limited-access highways or on roads with lower speed limits.” Oh, and it’s the same story on Nissan Rogues, with IIHS claiming “There was no significant effect on lane departure crash rates from lane departure prevention.”
So, what does this mean? Well, it means that education on advanced driver assistance systems is critical to road safety, as many of these systems aren’t safety nets, they’re security blankets. This IIHS report indicates that lane-maintaining features and Level 2 semi-automation might not actually reduce collisions by a significant margin, and that has ramifications for both the drivers of cars so-equipped and drivers of other cars. Operators of vehicles with these ADAS systems need to understand that they might not work as promised. Operators of other vehicles need to keep in mind that a mindset of complacency can set it when giving too much trust to fallible systems, so driving defensively around Level 2 semi-automated vehicles is always a good idea.
It’s wishful thinking, but perhaps in the future, some of these systems can be pared back as their efficacy rates disappoint. Removing ineffective features would reduce the cost and complexity of new vehicles, putting a small dent in manufacturing costs and a potentially bigger one in repair costs. At this point, though, one thing’s for certain — the question of whether or not autonomy is a widely beneficial idea is starting to look more and more like a no.
(Photo credits: Nissan, BMW)
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Just fancy cruise control at best, neither self driving nor a safety feature.
What’s the solution to level 5 driving? The solution is so obvious!
Since corporations are people people should start acting like corporations. The corporate solution to such a labor problem would be to have a churning pool of unpaid college interns as free personal chauffeurs. Use ’em and lose ’em when they finally wise up and/or burn out.
Problem solved.
I thought this was well established already. The implementation of anitlock brakes and skid control, while amazing tools, are mitigated by drivers driving more aggressively with the thought that some of their responsibility for control of the car has been absorbed by technology.
Good discussion points all around from the commentariat, but…
Can we really use driving data from BMWs and Nissan Rogues, especially lane discipline, as a surrogate for the population at large?
Interestingly we went from having a car with most of these systems (2021 Mazda3) to one with literally none (2014 Ford Territory) and have so far not really missed any of them – I’ve even decided I prefer regular cruise control over the radar kind due to the Mazda’s annoying tendency to brake when the car in front moves off the side of the road to turn or otherwise slow down.
Having said that, the AEB did probably save us from one rear-end incident during a particularly complicated merge, and I did learn to anticipate its false alarms and prevent them by lightly braking when approaching. The reversing AEB scared the crap out of me a few times when I was backing into our narrow garage though.
The lane-keep assist was also probably one of the better implementations, it really only engaged when I was about the cross a line without indicating, and it was pretty gentle with the wheel movements.
The one thing I really do miss, however, is the heads-up display. One of the few “modern” conveniences (I know they’ve been around forever, but they’re only now getting a bit more common) that actually keeps eyes on the road.
How about we do a better job of teaching people to drive? Even if we lived in a world where all of these systems actually worked, the fact of the matter is that a majority of cars and trucks on the road don’t have any sort of driver assistance systems. But 99.9% of cars have someone in the driver’s seat, who is (ostensibly) in control of the vehicle.
Well, because they are terrible. Until the people painting road marking start going to track days and doing better with the lines, I’m going to be fighting the lane departure warning system every time I leave the house, so it’s off. Frankly, we needs systems to keep the distractable monkey behind the wheel focused on the job, that’s the real driver assist we need, until we get something where a drunk can flop in, say “home, James” and it just works. That’s a long ways off.
“until we get something where a drunk can flop in, say “home, James” and it just works. That’s a long ways off.”
Oh those have been around for a long time. Horses, taxis, rideshares, chauffeurs, trolleys, rickshaws, sedan chairs, tuk tuks, busses, maybe even a sympathetic small town cop.
So glad I can turn off lane keep on my car. I’m not drifting lanes, I’m avoiding potholes or ice patches, or large vehicles, or erratic drivers because I’m aware of what’s in front and to the side of me.
Seems destined for the same disposal bucket as automated parking systems discussed earlier this week.
I’m supposed to let the car drive itself until it messes up and I’m supposed to take over at that point. Why would anyone want that? I like that it tells me there is a car in the next lane and adaptive cruise keeps me four car lengths behind on the highway. Human variability is too great for all this to work.
If this is bad, full self driving is even worse. I can’t believe one of the world’s most valuable companies is “all in” on FSD and the CEO gets a pass for that. It will simply never happen on a widespread basis.
A safety system that pisses people off enough that they turn it off the moment they start the car is not an effective safety system.
My parents have a Skoda Enyaq (think Skoda’s take on the VW ID.4, but with better buttons and 4 window switches for less money). They have the button for the lane departure in the ‘quick settings’ thing that swipes down from the top of the screen. It’s awful. It can’t be turned to a lower sensitivity, or to just alert you. Instead it tugs at the wheel. It’s turned off as soon as they leave the house.
My Polestar 2 however is really unobtrusive. It has a setting to just vibrate the wheel, which it does from time to time, but it’s not annoying, and doesn’t try and steer you into oncoming traffic. As such, it’s always on.
It’s a world of difference between the two systems.
I personally really dislike the lane assist systems. Mostly because I never fiddle my phone and actually pay attention to traffic, so there’s no legimate cases it has to intervene.
HOWEVER it goes nuts on winter with snow, doesn’t like gravel either and every other surface issue, roadwork, etc, causes quite easily near crashes as it suddenly decides to turn the wheel.
I wish I could permatently disable it, but it’s not possible. And it’s quite few clicks away in the infotainment (again potential danger point of toggling it off while moving).
I think the solution is to imbed RFID tags into road reflectors that can be clearly “seen” through snow, water, haze ice, whatever. For roads too primitive to support such a system it’d have to hand control back to the nut behind the wheel.
Both our cars have all this shit and I mostly like that it’s there but I don’t depend on it, ever. The Nissan system is a bit nannyish at times but the BMW system has never bothered me. The Nissan wants to steer for you, a lot, (lane keep assist shuts off with a button on dash) where as my BMW is more like “Really? You’re going to make me steer?” and waits a lot longer before deciding it needs to take over.
If I ever became incapacitated while driving, it’s nice to know theses cars could potentially mitigate a collision. “I got your back”…. “(maybe)”.