Today’s new cars are loaded with all sorts of advanced safety systems that are aimed at helping drivers avoid collisions and making roads safer, but as it turns out, all those modern safety features create confusion for drivers, with many of them not even knowing how such technologies work. A new study from the University of Iowa shows that most consumers don’t understand many of the safety features in their vehicles, which could be a potential safety issue.
The University of Iowa Transportation and Vehicle Safety Research Division surveyed over 2,000 drivers from across the United States to find out how well drivers understand different safety systems and how often they practice defensive driving techniques. The results from the study show that many drivers have seen unexpected behaviors from their vehicles, with 40% of those surveyed reporting that they had experienced a situation in which their vehicle behaved in a way that was unexpected, but only 32% of them tried to find out what caused those unusual behaviors.
Drivers were asked to express their level of understanding on nine vehicle safety technologies: anti-lock braking systems (ABS), cruise control, traction control, tire pressure monitoring systems, back-up/rear-view cameras and back-up sensor warning systems, adaptive cruise control, blind spot warning systems, forward collision warning systems, and lane departure warning systems. Most drivers had uncertainties with adaptive cruise control, with 65.2% of them responding that they are not sure how it works. Tire pressure monitoring systems create confusion for 45.3% of respondents, followed by lane departure warning systems (35.6%).
The finding that a lot of drivers don’t really know how these safety systems work is a bit unexpected, as the report states that most of those surveyed said that they have been exposed to or have used all the technologies, except adaptive cruise control.
“The level of confusion about features that have been standard in American cars for quite awhile was really surprising,” said Daniel McGehee, director of the Transportation and Vehicle Safety Research Division at the UI Public Policy Center, in a press release, noting that tire pressure monitoring and anti-lock braking systems have been in vehicles for some time. “The little details about how some of these systems work are really important when we’re talking about safety. We need to do a better job of making sure consumers are comfortable with them.”
What this survey reveals is that traffic safety could be drastically improved if drivers were more familiar with the safety technologies their vehicles are fitted with, which is why the University of Iowa Transportation and Vehicle Safety Research Division will develop a national education campaign that will use the findings from this survey in order to raise driver knowledge of the most common vehicle safety systems and help them understand such systems better.