Toronto, Ontario — A new study from the Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) reveals that almost nine out of 10 drivers of vehicles equipped with lane departure warning and prevention systems now keep them switched on.
The study, which surveyed drivers with the technology, further notes that seven out of 10 drivers of vehicles that give visual alerts when they exceed the speed limit also keep this feature running.
By comparison, a similar study conducted by the company eight years ago found that only 51 percent of vehicles had any kind of lane maintenance systems activated—in contrast to the 87 percent found in today’s vehicles.
Additionally, the current survey showed that front crash prevention—forward collision warnings or automatic emergency braking (AEB)—was activated in 94 percent of vehicles. In many of today’s designs, these features also can’t be disabled.
Alongside this, of the vehicles that had lane departure prevention, 11 percent had only the warning function enabled, while 76 percent had the prevention function enabled.
IIHS Research Scientist Aimee Cox, the lead author of the study, concluded that “the results reflect a combination of better designs and a growing acceptance of crash avoidance systems, more generally. The new designs make the feature a little harder to turn off and a lot less annoying for the driver.”
To read the full study, click here.
