According to the Florida Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, there were a total of 402,385 motor vehicle crashes in Florida in 2017. This was a 1.67% rise compared to the 395,785 crashes witnessed in 2016. Technology has led to the advent of driver assistance systems (ADAs) in new cars and trucks.
ADAs include such features as backup cameras, blind-spot alerts, adaptive cruise control, lane-keeping systems, pedestrian detection, collision alerts, automatic braking, automatic high beam lighting, and so on. Institutions are also coming up with courses that make it easy for drivers to transition to automated vehicles. Florida ADI course is an example of such courses.
Do ADAs reduce accidents?
Unlike airbags or seatbelts, which are meant to mitigate the effects of a collision, the ADAs are meant to prevent an accident from happening in the first place. They also improve the chances of surviving an accident and decrease the injury rate.
Today, ADAs are available in luxury as well as economy cars. Car experts have gone on to claim that ADAs are among the most critical safety features in contemporary cars due to their ability to prevent accidents entirely or reduce their severity.
A study carried out by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety; these technologies are minimizing the accident rates. The study shows that lane-keeping systems have lowered the rates of head-on, single-vehicle, and sideswipe collisions by 11%. This technology has also lowered the injury rate for the same accident types by 21%.
One challenge that comes with evaluating ADAs is that it is impossible to enumerate the number of accidents that did not happen. Nevertheless, they are a major step forward.
Where does the driver’s proficiency come in?
Despite their role in accident and collision reduction, ADAs must operate in a way that does not unnerve or irritate the drivers. Otherwise, drivers might lose confidence in their functionality and even disable them. While they must be fully functional, the driver must be ready to override the system when critical circumstances arise.
You must also have a thorough understanding of the ADAs functionalities, their full performance range, and their limits. This is because there are situations which ADAs cannot salvage. For instance, automatic braking systems might be ineffective in slippery or wet roads any more than they could boost your car’s braking power.
While these systems work, it would be irresponsible to market them while ignoring factors such as the driver’s competence and his attention while on the road. False expectations of these systems may lead to their misuse or an increase in distracted driving.
Training on how to use the systems should not only be left to courses such as the Florida ADI course, but it should also be a priority for dealers and automakers.
