As the automotive world leans more towards technology in its mechanicals and gets more advanced by the day. With a slew of safety features included in most cars nowadays to prevent crashes, however, a new study has revealed that drivers are more prone to end up in one with the increased use of driver-assist systems overriding your natural instincts.
According to a study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) and MIT’s AgeLab, revealed that the use of Driver Assist Systems (DSS) may result in higher rates of distracted driving among people using these features.
The research conducted in Massachusetts is based on the driving habits of 20 volunteers who for over a month using the driver-assist features for the study. They also noted how often the volunteers took both their hands off the wheel or were distracted by the use of cell phones, fiddling with interior items of the car while driving.
The volunteers were split in two groups, the first half were given a Land Rover Range Rover Sport model with Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC), while the other half were handed a Volvo S90 which featured both ACC and Pilot Assist System, a feature that keeps the vehicle in your travel lane.
Ian Reagan, Senior Research Scientist and lead author of the study, said that things remained normal early-on, but after a month the test subjects got careless and were more likely to focus on other things than driving. ‘Drivers were more than twice as likely to show signs of disengagement after a month of using Pilot assist compared with the beginning of the study’, he added.
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The inclusion of advanced driver assist systems is to increase driver comfort and aid in traffic safety. But it is important to note that these advanced safety features kick in as an intermediary level and not on full automation. As public roads are an unpredictable place and the onus is always on the driver to maintain control and have situational awareness.
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