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A recent study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) reveals a notable shift in driver behavior, with nearly 90% of drivers keeping lane departure warning and prevention systems activated in their vehicles. This reflects growing trust in crash avoidance technologies, which are designed to improve road safety. Similarly, 70% of drivers with visual speed alerts keep them engaged, indicating rising acceptance of these systems.
While lane departure systems haven’t reduced crashes as significantly as forward collision warnings or automatic emergency braking, the increasing use of these features highlights their potential. Automakers have made design improvements, which have helped reduce the annoyance that caused many drivers to deactivate these systems in the past.
Key Highlights:
- 87% of drivers keep their lane departure warning and prevention systems on.
- Lane departure systems can potentially reduce 23% of fatal crashes involving passenger vehicles.
- Front crash prevention features like automatic emergency braking (AEB) remain activated in 94% of vehicles.
- Haptic alerts, such as vibrations, are favored over audible alerts, contributing to higher activation rates.
- 70% of vehicles had visual speed alerts enabled, compared to only 14% for audible speed warnings.
The IIHS study also found that automakers‘ efforts to make these systems easier to use have been instrumental in driving the increased activation rates. Modern vehicles with lane departure systems that incorporate haptic alerts or allow customization of alert modes were more likely to have these features turned on. Similarly, intelligent speed assistance (ISA), which uses visual or haptic warnings when a vehicle exceeds the speed limit, is becoming more popular, especially with recent adoption in Europe.
The findings suggest that these crash prevention technologies, when designed with driver preferences in mind, have a better chance of being embraced, potentially reducing crash rates and improving road safety overall.
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