According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), too many car owners are too comfortable handing off driver assistance features to their vehicles, potentially putting themselves and others at risk.
According to IIHS, a survey of about 600 regular users of General Motors Super Cruise, Nissan/Infiniti ProPILOT Assist and Tesla Autopilot found that they are “more likely to engage in non-driving activities like eating or texting while using their semi-automation systems than while driving alone.” Help.”
“The overall message here is that early adopters of these systems still have a poor understanding of the limitations of the technology,” said IIHS President David Harkey.
The study reports that 53 percent of Super Cruise users, 42 percent of Tesla Autopilot users, and 12 percent of Nissan’s ProPilot Assist users let the system drive without watching what was happening on the road. Some even described being comfortable letting the vehicle drive in inclement weather.
These systems combine adaptive cruise control and lane keeping systems primarily to keep a car in lane and following traffic on the highway. All require an alert human driver to monitor the road and take full control when necessary.
“None of the current systems are designed to replace a human driver or to make a driver safe to engage in other activities that distract them from the road,” IIHS said in announcing the results of its survey.
While all three automakers are warning drivers about the systems’ limitations, confusion remains. Tesla’s driver assistance system, which it calls “fully self-driving,” has come under intense scrutiny over the years, as auto safety experts say the name is misleading and could make road safety worse.
The US government has not established standards for these features, which are among the latest technologies in vehicles today. A patchwork of state laws and voluntary federal guidelines attempts to cover the testing and eventual deployment of autonomous vehicles in the United States.
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Background to: Self-driving cars and insurance
