A new study sheds light on how advanced driver assistance systems or ADAS is effective in preventing road crashes and injuries.
Funded by the American Automobile Association (AAA)—think the U.S. equivalent of the AAP—their study shows that nearly 250,000 road deaths could be prevented over the next 30 years in the U.S. alone thanks to vehicles equipped with ADAS.
Research performed by the University of North Carolina Highway Safety Research Center projected that the technology, which includes features such as automatic emergency braking (AEB) and blind spot alerts, also would prevent approximately 37 million crashes and 14 million injuries from 2021 to 2050.
That would represent 16 percent of crashes and injuries and 22 percent of deaths that would occur on U.S. roads without the technologies.
The AAA research is inline with insurance industry findings.
Automatic emergency braking reduces front-to-rear crashes with injuries by 56 percent compared with vehicles lacking the technology, according to the U.S.-based Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). Blind spot warning cut lane-change crashes with injuries by 23 percent.
In the U.S., about 23 percent of registered vehicles are equipped with front automatic emergency braking. According to the institute, that’s expected to grow to 47 percent by 2027. Blind spot warning is on 25 percent of vehicles now but will increase to a predicted 48 percent in the same time frame.
Of course, the AAA acknowledges that the full safety benefit of ADAS will not be realized unless they’re fully understood by the consumer, used properly, and widely adopted.
This can lead to misuse or mistrust, especially in edge-case situations beyond the system’s capability.
In another example, automatic emergency braking has proven effective in reducing front-to-rear crashes between cars but is less effective in stopping vehicle collisions with pedestrians and bicyclists. It’s also less effective in preventing T-bone crashes and left-turn crashes in front of an oncoming vehicle, according to AAA tests.
The AAA forecast of lives saved and injuries prevented came from a model developed by researchers at the University of North Carolina. They estimated future safety benefits of collision warning systems, automatic emergency braking, adaptive cruise control, and dynamic driving assistance systems installed on all light vehicle body styles.
High uptake and use would increase the benefits. But if the technology moves into the registered vehicle population slowly, or drivers use settings to opt out of the technology, ADAS will be less effective.
Their should be a ranking of the best and worst ADAS.
ReplyDeleteIt also makes drivers dumber and dumber
ReplyDeleteI hope these systems become standard fairly soon in the way Apple Carplay is now mostly a factory-fitted feature. That said, carmakers should also make them more user-friendly and assistive rather than annoying and/or alarming.
ReplyDeleteADAS is for noobs... which is good. Lots of noob drivers out there especially females.
ReplyDeleteNo point adding ADAS if the structural rigidity of the whole vehicle is weak.
ReplyDeleteOld Ford Territory was like that (3 star CNCAP) and the recent DNGA vehicles are like that too.
The DNGA vehicles are actually great when it comes to structural integrity, definitely a lot better than the previous generation Ford Territory. However, the DNGA vehicles use very slim and weak exterior panel work (not structural, btw) and a poorly built rattley interior, creating an impression that these vehicles are weak. But driving them (specifically the Raize in this case) reveals that to be not the case. In fact, sir Uly was impressed with the Raize's structure, stating: "In fact, this is one of the only handful of small SUVs out there whose under bits feel like they’re actually made of steel and aluminum as opposed to clay or porridge."
DeleteAre there any reliable data around on how ADAS's are, err, reliable? ADAS may be good on paper and but how trustworthy are they and will the systems last? It's scary to rely on it for a few years only to find out it fails on that one time you needed it.
ReplyDeleteADAS is great and all but they're still not perfect, drivers must never fully depend on these systems, in some scenarios human reaction still works best :)
ReplyDelete