The Reality of Safety Technology in Our Vehicles: Are We Really Safer?

Back in the “old days,” the most we could ask for in vehicle safety was cross-body seatbelts and front and side airbags. Today, however, new models of cars, trucks, and SUVs have a dazzling array of safety technologies to choose from. Current vehicles offer things like rear-view cameras, lane-keeping assistance, and semi-autonomous driving features. All of this technology is designed with the goal to keep every driver on the road safer.

But is it working?

Researchers at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) decided to find out. And, what they found was that the more familiar and comfortable with a vehicle’s automated systems a driver becomes, the less engaged they become from the driving process. And with more and more automated vehicles on the road every day, these are troubling findings.

What is an advanced driver assistance system?

When discussing safety technologies and motor vehicles, the researchers in the study are referring to advanced driver assistance systems, commonly called ADAS. ADAS systems include things like:

• Adaptive cruise control
• Automatic emergency braking
• Blind spot detection
• Forward and rear collision warnings
• Lane departure warnings
• Pedestrian/bicyclist detection systems

These types of technologies use sensors and cameras to detect and avoid potential collisions by both taking action and alerting the motorist so they can take evasive maneuvers.

Results of the research

The goal of the IIHS and MIT joint study, published in late 2020, was to explore how a driver’s experience with automation affects their disengagement with the driving process. Researchers found that drivers “fidget with electronics and take both hands off the wheel more often as they develop trust in automated systems.”

For the study, researchers followed the driving behavior of 20 volunteers over the span of one month. Each volunteer was assigned one of two vehicles with ADAS to become familiar with – a Land Rover Range Rover Evoque equipped with adaptive cruise control (ACC), or a Volvo S90 with both ACC and Pilot Assist. Researchers examined certain driver behaviors and how often they occurred; things like taking their hands off the wheel, taking their eyes off the road, or otherwise disengaging with the driving process.

The results? IIHS Senior Research Scientist Ian Reagan explained, “Drivers were more than twice as likely to show signs of disengagement after a month of using Pilot Assist compared with the beginning of the study. Compared with driving manually, they were more than 12 times as likely to take both hands off the wheel after they’d gotten used to how the lane centering worked.”

As for drivers of the Evoque, they were more likely to engage with their cell phone while using ADAS technology. Further, that tendency to do so “increased substantially” as they grew more familiar with the vehicle’s systems.

A 2019 study commissioned by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety showed similar results. A press release about the study said that drivers “with experience using advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) like adaptive cruise control and lane-keeping assist, were nearly twice as likely to engage in distracted driving while using the systems compared to when they were driving without the systems.”

Reagan also noted, “Crash investigators have identified driver disengagement as a major factor in every probe of fatal crashes involving partial automation we’ve seen. This study supports our call for more robust ways of ensuring the driver is looking at the road and ready to take the wheel when using Level Two systems…[rather than] getting lulled into a false sense of security over time.”

If you or a loved one were injured in a collision with a distracted driver in Maryland, talk to the attorneys at Plaxen Adler Muncy, P.A. today. We work on your behalf to secure compensation for your injuries and hold the responsible driver accountable. To schedule a free consultation about your case, give our Maryland offices a call today at 410-730-7737 or use our contact form.