Research shows one in five drivers admit disabling car safety features

Australia Broadcast Center

4 days ago

An analysis by insurance company AAMI of 480,000 claims over the past year shows 20 per cent of drivers admit they sometimes turn off features in the car that are designed to improve safety.
Steve Cratchley, motor insights and operations manager at AAMI, said the most commonly disabled features were lane keeping assist, lane departure warnings, autonomous emergency braking, and autonomous cruise control.
Of the 20 per cent who did disable the features, 69 per cent said it was because they found the safety features annoying, distracting, and too sensitive.
Twenty-three per cent said they did not think they needed safety assistance features, and 13 per cent said they did not trust them.
Lane departure warning and lane keeping assist were the most disliked features.
Mr Cratchley said it was in drivers' best interests to keep the features enabled.
"They're designed to avoid crashes, so we're really encouraging people who have this technology to learn what they mean, to understand how they work and to actually have them switched on rather than disabled," he told Nadia Mitsopoulos on ABC Radio Perth.
Mr Cratchley said switching to a new car with safety features they had not used before was a big adjustment for many drivers.
"People like my father, for example. He's been a truck driver, he's driven for 60-odd years, and when he got his last car he immediately called me and said: 'Look, Steve, how do I turn all this off? It's annoying me. It's trying to kill me,'" he said.
"But the reality is, he was driving against this technology, against these safety features.
"What he found is that, as he learnt what the bells and whistles and the lights and the mirrors and these sort of things were actually advising him, he became a safer driver, and that meant that those around him were also safer and potentially would have fewer accidents."
AAMI's crash report also found that nose-to-tail accidents were the most common, something that emergency braking and forward collision warning systems were designed to help prevent.
"As some of my peers have found when they've got their first new car in many years, it really is a case of working with the dealer when you pick up that new vehicle and understanding how these features work and then working with them rather than working against them or disabling them," Mr Cratchley said.
Text messages from ABC Radio Perth listeners revealed a deep dislike of adaptive safety features in new vehicles.
Paul: "I drove a hire car in Scotland with lane departure features, and it was extremely dangerous. I could put up with the annoying flashing warning signs (when there wasn't any danger) but the violent swerving back to where the car thinks I should be, has been close to taking me off the road into fields!"
Julie: "I find the sensors absolutely annoying, especially in the country. It dips my lights when it thinks there's enough light — but I don't want them dipped! There's no-one coming. Everyone's eyes are not the same."
Mel: "I have had my Kia Carnival slam on the brakes nearly causing me to be rear-ended because it picked up the car in front that was in the left-hand turning lane rather than in front."
Glenda: "I have recently bought a hybrid and it's driving me nuts. I have not turned off the safety features just turned my mind off. The beeping is so constant that it's overwhelming."
Eva: "I was in a new work car and it came to a sudden stop as I was merging lanes, luckily with no-one behind me. I was unable to get the car to move at all when this happened. I had to wait for what seemed like an eternity before I was able to move forward. Apparently what could've happened is that the car may have detected an old line and so brought me to a dead stop."
Others pointed out that passing could be unnerving when the lane keeping feature was enabled.
Kat: "We travel on regional roads and turn off the white line guidance. We've had occasions where there's been a dead animal or other debris on the road, even trying to give a cyclist wide berth, and if you try to steer around it the white line assist will push you back into the hazard."
Marty: "It's more dangerous to have lane keep assist on. I've nearly driven into other cars and cyclists when the car has steered me into them because of our dodgy road markings."
Paul: "Lane departure is a pain. Passing cyclists does my head in."
Lane departure assist, which forces a car back between white lines, is disabled if a driver turns on their indicator.
But for some motorists, the safety supports in modern cars were very welcome.
Pam: "I can't believe people would sacrifice safety and convenience for the occasional beeps. I have a new car with all the safety features, and I love them, and feel a bit safer now that I can rely on the car to be more vigilant than even I am."
Cam: "Emergency braking and alerts saved me hitting a cyclist when they went through a red light. It saved his life."