If you drive a new car, truck, or SUV with any number of active safety features like automatic emergency braking, it’s likely these systems have saved your behind once or twice. But over-reliance on these technologies can be dangerous, and now there’s science to back it up.
A new study from AAA’s Foundation for Traffic Safety surveyed over 1,200 owners of vehicles equipped with active safety features like forward collision warning, lane departure warning, active lane keep assist, blind spot monitoring, rear cross-traffic alert, and adaptive cruise control, and found that at least two in three owners reported that they trusted these technologies, while over three quarters found them useful. 70 percent of owners stated that they would want each respective technology feature on their next new vehicle and would recommend it to others.
Clearly these technologies have made a mostly positive impact, and with more brands like Toyota, Nissan, and Honda offering them as standard on many new vehicles, there’s more opportunity than ever to drive a vehicle that can help keep you from getting into an accident in the first place.
But despite the rosy outlook on these systems, the study also found that though respondents liked and trusted the tech, many did not understand the risks behind using it, or how it actually worked.
Only 21 percent of owners with blind-spot monitoring systems knew that vehicles passing at very high speeds like police cars and ambulances could be blind to the system, and the remaining 79 percent expressed other various misconceptions about the system’s limitations. What’s more, a third of owners of vehicles with automatic braking systems did not realize that it relies on cameras and sensors that could be blocked by dirt, ice, or snow, reducing or eliminating the system’s functionality.
Even more concerning, nearly 30 percent of respondents reported engaging in other activities with adaptive cruise control active and the same amount of owners with blind spot monitoring systems reported not checking their mirrors when changing lanes.
So if you own one of the increasing number of vehicles with these technologies, one thing is certain: don’t let them take over completely.