Vehicle safety study
Almost all driving assistants are unsafe: modern cars can be tricked so easily
Even if sleeping while driving sounds tempting: every car – even a Tesla – needs an attentive driver.
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Some car manufacturers boast that you no longer actually have to drive the latest models. However, they are legally obliged to monitor drivers’ attention. A new series of tests by the American Insurance Institute for Highway Safety shows that many people do not fulfill their obligation.
“Partial automation of driving is a convenience feature intended to make long journeys easier. There is no evidence that it makes driving safer, and it may even create new risks as it can more easily divert the driver’s attention. For this reason “It is important that all systems for partially automating driving are equipped with robust safety precautions,” it says IIHS results overview.
Even if the car drives safely, it still has to keep an eye on the driver
For the institute, the security precautions mentioned primarily consist of driver monitoring, attention reminders and emergency procedures, for example in the event of software defects. The systems that can make driving easier include, for example, adaptive cruise control, lane keeping and steering assistants or a lane change assistant.
Since no system currently guarantees absolute safety, manufacturers must ensure that overly gullible drivers do not get the idea of letting the cars drive alone. In the past, there have been repeated cases of Tesla drivers sleeping on American highways, some of whom used tricks to free themselves from the car’s constant control.
Mercedes-Benz also caused a stir years ago because the then new S-Class could be driven with a Coke can on the steering wheel. It is the job of the manufacturers to prevent exactly that – Tesla was recently ordered to take stricter measures (find out more here).
How the institute tried to outsmart the cars is detailed in a lengthy document (PDF) to read. For example, the driver’s face was covered with a cloth or weights were attached to the steering wheel – in each case to test whether the car was clever enough to see through these tricks.
11 of 14 systems had serious defects
The result is quite sobering: Only system was found acceptable: Lexus’ teammate with Advanced Drive. Two were rated mediocre: General-Motors’ Super Cruise and Nissan’s ProPilot Assist. And the rest, including Ford’s Bluecruise, Tesla’s FSD, BMW’s Active Driving Assistant Pro and Mercedes-Benz’ system, were rated unsatisfactory.
The reasons for the bad reviews are individual. Ford did poorly in terms of safety functions, Mercedes-Benz did not warn often enough about inattentive driving and BMW showed weaknesses in cruise control reactivation. Most of the weaknesses were evident in Tesla (software version 2023.7.10). There were problems with security measures in almost every area, with the exception of emergency interventions.
IIHS President David Harkey expressed concern about the apparent hasty deployment of these systems: “These results are worrying when you consider how quickly vehicles with these partially automated systems travel on our roads,” he concluded, “But there is also hope when looking at the group’s performance as a whole. No single system performed well in all categories, but at least one system performed well in each category. This means the fixes are readily available and in some cases can be resolved with a simple software update.”