Whether it’s part of a special add-on package or pre-programmed into the car, consumers nowadays are hard-pressed to find a car without a driver-assist system. But as convenient and futuristic as these systems seem, it may be time to rethink their reliability at this stage in their technical development.
The American Automobile Association (AAA) recently did an experiment to test these systems using one car model from each of the five following automobile companies: BMW, Cadillac, Ford, Kia and Subaru. The driver-assist systems from each of these cars fit under the level 2 classification of the standard-developing organization SAE International’s “Levels of Driving Automation” scale. This means that these cars have the highest level of autonomous technology currently available to consumers.
The study revealed some shocking results. Throughout the 4,000 miles covered in the study, the systems averaged an issue every 8 miles. These issues included the car getting too close to other cars or objects without notifying the driver, the system turning off without notifying the driver and failure to give forward-collision warnings. The collision warning issue was tested in a closed course with a disabled vehicle placed in the path of the car. Even with the cars going just 25 mph, a crash occurred a whopping 66 percent of the time.
It is clear that in real-world scenarios, these systems don’t hold up. If the future of the car industry is autonomous, these results suggest that we are far from this transition, both technologically and in consumer persuasion. AAA did a subsequent survey which found that at the moment, only 12% of consumers would feel comfortable riding in an autonomous vehicle. It is up to car companies to not just develop their technology, but also to prove to consumers that using the technology will not compromise their safety.
These systems created to make roads safer are clearly not fulfilling this goal and there is still a great deal of progress needed to be made. One thing is clear: consumers may want to think twice about dozing off at the wheel, at least until car companies roll out some major improvements to their systems.