SAFETY FEATURES GET SMARTER
Automated systems are starting to put a dent in accident, injury totals
The big, black MercedesBenz is going 70 on the101 Freeway in Southern California, making minor steering adjustments to hold the lane. I have taken my hands off the steering wheel. Acomputer is driving.
After maybe10 seconds, the steering wheel icon on the dash turns bright red, as if to say: Dude! Hands back at 10 and 2. Forget about Google Inc.’s self-driving Toyota Prius, jammed with technology only a legion of Caltech professors can understand. Autonomous driving is already here on cars in dealer showrooms.
It’s packed into the safety features on this $100,000 flagship S550 Mercedes sedan; on the new Acura MDXsport utility that sells for half that price; and on less expensive vehicles such as the Ford Fusion, which can parallel-park itself.
We’re still a long way from sending unmanned cars to the grocery store, but automated safety systems are starting to have a real effect now in protecting passengers and limiting accident damage, according to regulators and insurance industry experts.
Such systems can alert drivers to an impending rear-end collision — and slam the brakes. They can stop a vehicle from hitting a post as it backs up. They can track the speed of the car in front, adjusting to maintain a safe distance. Some warn a driver when a car is about to wander out of its lane, and steer it back on course. Another adjusts headlamps to better illuminate turns.
“We think these systems can make a huge difference in saving lives,” said David Strickland, chief of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Forward collision avoidance systems, which automatically hit the brakes and tighten seat belts, have reduced property damage claims on some Mercedes and Acura models14 percent, according to the Highway Loss Data Institute, an Arlington, Va., organization that analyzes crash data for the insurance industry.
More important, they lowered bodily injury claims — in which the driver of one car is accused of hurting someone in another — by16 percent in the Mercedes and15 percent in the Acura.
Asystem that comes on the Volvo XC60 sport utility vehicle has even better results, reducing the types of crashes that occur in city traffic and parking lots. It slashed injury claims more than 33 percent.
“That is a huge number,” said Matt Moore, a vice president at the institute.
Front-to-rear crashes are the most frequent, so the systems could make a huge dent in injury totals, Moore said. Eventually, that should make insurance rates lower for cars with these safety features. Other systems merely aid the driver, such as headlights designed like eyeballs that track turns in the road. These steerable headlamps turn in the same proportion a driver turns the steering wheel.
AMazda system called Adaptive Front Lighting has reduced property claims frequency by more than10 percent. Similar systems have lowered claims 9 percent in some Volvo cars and about 5 percent in certain Mercedes and Acura models.
The latest safety technology relies on a suite of technologies working together, including radar, stereoscopic cameras, ultrasonic sensors, lasers and infrared cameras. Given the complexity, it’s no surprise that drivers are seeing some glitches.
Cars with adaptive cruise control — the system that tracks vehicles ahead — can be prone to an odd hiccup. Driving at highway speeds on curvy roads, the sensors could mistake a vehicle in the next lane for a vehicle directly ahead, causing the car to slow unnecessarily. This isn’t unique to Mercedes and has cropped up in our tests of Honda Accords and other cars with adaptive cruise control.
Cars equipped with automatic braking can be similarly fooled. Say you are following a car that flashes its right blinker before turning into a McDonald’s. You know the car is turning, so you don’t hit the brakes. The forward collision system has no idea the car is turning, so it triggers the brakes, thinking it is saving you from yourself.
On a drive from Los Angeles to San Francisco on Interstate 5, the Acura MDXlane-keeping system proved easier to use and more fluid than the Mercedes version.
The challenge for automakers is to find the balance between effective and irritating, said Steve Kenner, global director of Ford’s Automotive Safety Office.