Drivers still don’t fully trust driver-assistance systems, study shows

With advanced driver-assistance systems becoming more prevalent in new cars, a study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) has found that users are still hesitant to entrust features like adaptive cruise control (ACC) and more sophisticated semi-autonomous systems.

When approaching sharper curves on the road, the study has found that semi-autonomous driving which combines ACC with lane keep assist are often disabled. This is due to drivers who switch the features off or the systems deactivate automatically.

“We know that advanced driver assistance features may help prevent crashes, but obviously they can only do so if drivers use them,” says IIHS Senior Research Transportation Engineer Wen Hu, the lead author of the paper.

“This study suggests that these technologies will only be able to reach their full potential if drivers can trust them to handle curves,” Hu added.

In the study, operational test data were collected by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) Advanced Vehicle Technology Consortium. Two Range Rover Evoques and two Volvo S90s were used, driven by 39 different drivers over a span of four weeks. The cars were equipped with ACC and lane centering feature.

In the Evoque, drivers were 72 percent less likely to use ACC on the sharpest category of curves, which is defined as those with a radius smaller than 700 metres. As for the S90, drivers were 75 percent less likely to use Pilot Assist and 66 percent less likely to use ACC on the sharpest curves.

The IIHS added that the analysis did not determine if the driver switched the systems of manually or was it deactivated automatically. 

“The fact that Pilot Assist was frequently inactive on the sharpest curves is an important limitation, since the kinds of crashes lane centering could help prevent are more likely to occur on curves than on straightaways,” says Hu.

The IIHS believes that ACC could reduce collisions since it typically results in greater following distances, which allows more time for the driver to react to emergency situations.

It is worth nothing however, that most systems with ACC and lane centering function do not excel at navigating curves on the road. The Pilot Assist feature in Volvos for example, has listed several limitations that affects its ability to function properly.

In the context of Malaysian roads where unclear lane markings, roadside barriers, and high curbs are common, the Pilot Assist feature may be even less effective here. We suspect that Malaysians would share similar distrust when it comes to curves on the road, and rightly so. 

It's a supplementary safety system, the driver needs to remain alert at all times.

In a contradicting research: Study: ADAS systems unreliable, more of an interference than an assistance 

Also read: Advanced Driver Assistance Systems ADAS, more harm than good?