CarGurus’ motoring expert and commentator Vicky Parrott has her say on the burning issues in the automotive world. This week, it’s the unseen effects of the ever-expanding array of driver assistance systems in our cars…
Safety assistance systems in cars are great, aren't they? Statistically, they really are. After all, the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) has estimated that the introduction of mandatory speed limiters and warnings in cars could prevent 140,000 serious road traffic injuries by 2038. More than that, in 2022, exceeding the speed limit was reported as a factor in 7 per cent of all accidents, but these accidents involved nearly 20 per cent of fatalities.
Since then, under EU law, any new car sold after July 7th 2024 must now have an audible speed limit warning, active lane-keep assist, and various other driver aids engaged automatically every time the car is started. Currently, you can choose to turn the systems off, but let’s face it - that may not always be the case.
Before we start throwing around phrases like ‘Nanny State’, or talking to our therapists about the looming sense of suffocation that comes in the wake of many modern safety regulations, let’s address the issues with these assistance systems - before they get turned on forever.
For a start, they are not always reliable. Yes, they are increasingly clever, and have merit in many regards. I’m all for having them. I like an adaptive cruise system, and even a competent semi-autonomous drive mode, in long, annoying average speed camera zones on the motorway. But I’ll say it again for those at the back: these systems are not universally reliable. Not by a long shot.
You know the innards of the roadwork areas on UK motorways, which often have a speed limit of 10mph for those service vehicles moving about within them? I’ve had two cars, from different manufacturers, read that speed limit instead of the real one – and tell me that I should be doing 10mph on a live motorway. If I’d had one of the more advanced semi-autonomous driver assist systems with speed limit response in action, it would have slowed the car down for me.
I’ve also had a car read a 30mph sign as 80mph, and I’ve often had cars give up altogether on figuring out the speed limit, and just serve up the equivalent of a shrugging emoji on the driver’s readout.
More than that, many of the UK’s rural roads are narrow, and rely on the driver’s common sense that it’s best to slow down and edge towards the verge when there’s oncoming traffic.
But computers don’t have common sense. The lidars and radars and cameras may react quicker than a human. They don’t get tired, and they may see better in the dark and even be linked to satellite navigation information. But they don’t realise that you’d rather go over that line at the edge of the road, and maybe even have some long grass brush against the car, instead of driving into the oncoming VW Passat.
In the event that this all starting to sound very ranty and anti-safety, I’ll emphasise the point again that vehicular safety systems aren’t bad. Modern cars are far safer than the cars of even a decade ago, both in terms of structural safety in a crash, and the active assistance systems that can genuinely help to avoid it being put to the test. That progress with vehicle safety is only ever a good thing.
But it is truly critical that the car industry, and especially the legislators that it's beholden to, acknowledge that humans can still be cleverer than a machine mind. And are able to judge when the systems are wrong, and potentially even a hazard. At that point, it is even more crucial that they can be overridden quickly. Or, ideally, turn them off altogether in those areas where the driver may well know that the car is prone to confusion, and telling you that the speed limit is 130mph because there’s a branch overhanging the 30mph sign just past the Queen’s Head pub.
The most important thing that car makers must do, is stop hiding the controls for assistance systems in the touchscreen. Make it mandatory that you can save your chosen safety settings, and access them with a one-two press of a physical button, for activation and confirmation. I’d love to claim credit for this idea, but actually Renault got there first, as it has this feature on its cars – including the Renault Scenic E-Tech that I reviewed for the CarGurus UK YouTube channel only recently.
Such a joyously simple, no-nonsense feature: A button to activate your chosen driver assist settings. No touchscreen prodding and swiping, just a button, executed in plastic and permanently in its place on the dashboard, with a light on the button and equivalent warnings on the dash, so that you can’t be in any doubt as to when your settings are active. And that makes it easier to turn on, of course, as well as off.
So, there you have it. I don’t mind that these systems are now mandatory. They are proven to help reduce road casualties, and – as I’ve said – better safety standards and fewer accidents is only ever a good thing. But we do also need to accept that, right now, these driver-assistance systems have real flaws, and can often be utterly maddening and distracting, especially away from main trunk roads. So let’s make these systems easier to control. And have a little faith that the fleshy thing behind the steering wheel might, just occasionally, know better than the computers.
