Navigating the Digital Highway: The Impact of Car Technology on Safety

It’s no secret that as technology continues to advance, much of how we go about our day-to-day lives has also evolved in tandem. Technology has bled into and facilitates nearly everything, from connecting with friends online to automating rote tasks at work – even to reminding us to take care of our bills and revolutionizing industries. It should be no surprise then that, as cutting-edge technology gets built into our modern vehicles, new systems do everything they can to facilitate safe driving.

Advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) encompass a number of features you may already be familiar with, such as automated driving, emergency braking, blind-spot checking, backup cameras, and global positioning systems (GPS). Many of us have these technologies seamlessly integrated into our cars and use them daily. In theory, these systems should lower the rate of crashes, as they are intended to prevent accidents caused by carelessness and human error.

However, many posit that it is dangerous to rely on technology that makes driving effortless. Regular reliance on automation may in fact decrease driver vigilance, ironically lessening the effectiveness of these built-in safety features. This raises a crucial question: as ADAS systems become increasingly advanced and normalized, how should drivers interact with them to enhance their efficiency and safety benefits?

Let’s break it down.

ADAS Systems’ Impact on Driving Safely

To accurately determine how helpful our ADAS systems are, we must first understand how new technology in cars affects our driving — positively and negatively. ADAS systems and other adjacent high-tech features change how we interact with our cars and how we drive. While they are designed to do so for our benefit, careless use can have negative consequences for driver safety.

Let’s start by breaking down how ADAS systems can prevent crashes:

• Forward collision warning systems produce audible and visual warnings when a collision is imminent, instructing the driver to slow down, stop, or steer in a certain direction to avoid impact.
• Adaptive cruise control automatically reduces speed when necessary to facilitate flowing with traffic, using radar to detect other vehicles and adjust speed without manual input.
• Blind spot detection systems issue a warning when an object is out of the driver’s view, using sensors to detect vehicles positioned around your car.
• Back-up cameras and collision warning systems show you a linear view of the area behind your car when backing up, and issue warnings when you come too close to other objects on the road.
• Automatic emergency braking systems are connected to the others and automatically apply the emergency brake if the driver doesn’t respond to collision warnings in time — a backup feature that accounts for user error.

All of these systems work in tandem to alert the driver when an accident is about to occur and have built-in fail-safes to respond if the user misses or ignores a warning. In theory, this is a massive boon to drivers, as these systems should support driver vigilance while on the road. However, in practice, they can often have these unintended consequences for driver safety:

• Driver negligence: Drivers can become so reliant on these systems to avoid warnings that they neglect to watch for hazards themselves, even to the point of engaging in non-driving related tasks while the ADAS takes over.
• Increased distraction: Integrated entertainment features, an often adjacent technological benefit designed to facilitate driver convenience, still take drivers’ eyes off the road. These convenience features often reinforce the tendency to engage in secondary actions while the ADAS is active, increasing driver distraction.
• Limited system accuracy: The reliance on systems like backup cameras and collision control often doesn’t consider that the perception of these systems is limited. Backup cameras have a narrow view, and sensors don’t always detect hazards that are just out of range. Therefore, if a driver isn’t vigilant and misses these hazards, they can still get into accidents with the ADAS active.

ADAS systems aren’t designed to absolve the driver of the responsibility to remain vigilant; they are instead intended as tools to facilitate watchfulness, despite how they may be used.

ADAS Systems and Business Vehicles

What this shows us is that it’s important that drivers stay vigilant on the road, and that goes double for business vehicles with ADAS systems installed. Businesses often purchase ADAS features to prove their investment against human error, helping their drivers stay safe on the road. Features like GPS tracking help businesses with safe driving insurance cuts, mileage reductions, and other insurance-adjacent benefits, even if they’re using a personal car for work.

However, businesses will see no return on that investment if their drivers don’t follow best practices for road safety. Interacting with ADAS systems safely is contingent on the same set of principles, regardless of whether you’re using them in a personal vehicle or for business purposes. These practices include:

• Double-check ADAS reports manually — i.e., check behind you before backing up, even if you’re using a backup camera.
• Avoid distractions on the road — sync up your phone to play your music before departing the parking lot, and use hands-free controls to access entertainment if necessary.
• Being watchful – ADAS systems might not trigger consistently, so manually checking blind spots before changing lanes and driving defensively are still best practices.

Modern vehicle tech like ADAS can make driving easier, safer, and faster. However, with this technology comes great risk. Drivers should still pay attention to the road, no matter what. Follow these principles, and you’ll be able to use your ADAS system as intended – as a tool to facilitate safe driving, not a replacement for you.