Some drivers are completely against safety tech in vehicles. They see everything from lane departure warning systems to trailer assist as a dumbing down of society. In their minds, people should just rely on their senses and skills to navigate any problems they may encounter on the roads. While driving alert and learning new skills are certainly important, safety tech in vehicles saves lives.
One CNN article reports that most drivers with these programs installed in their cars say they have prevented a crash at least once. Among those specifically called out by respondents in the curvey cited are blind-spot monitoring, automatic emergency braking and lane-keeping assistance.
These and other safety tech built into modern vehicles rely on cameras and sensors installed all around the vehicle from one tail end to the next. Some are so advanced that they can provide a 360-degree view of the vehicle and what surrounds it. In some vehicles, autonomous driving modes make it possible to parallel park, back up a trailer or navigate highway traffic with ease.
The AAA Foundation has also completed studies on how safety tech performs in real-world driving conditions. It found the following:
- Safety tech could prevent 29% of deaths involving passenger vehicles.
- Safety tech could prevent 37% of the injuries that victims suffer from, in crashes involving passenger vehicles.
- Safety tech could prevent roughly 40% of all the passenger vehicle crashes that take place each year.
The AAA is also one of several organizations that have, over the past few years, lobbied for commercial trucks to become fitted with safety tech as well. The truth is that distractions, fatigue and intoxication make drivers a danger to themselves and others. While it is unfortunate that drivers must often rely on their own vehicles to keep them safe, there is peace of mind in knowing that there are sensors and cameras acting as backup to their own two eyes and human reflexes.