Will switching off annoying driver ‘aids' affect my insurance?
Dear Alex,
Further to your response to a reader's question about switching off driver assistance features, would deactivating such systems have any implications for insurance claims should the vehicle be involved in an accident?
– DS
Dear DH,
An excellent question. Insurers have been known to refuse claims if items of standard equipment have been disabled in the past. However, in this case, it's likely they wouldn't do so.
It's true that they don't like you turning off these safety systems, called Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (abbreviated to ADAS). For the time being at least, insurers consider it best practice to leave them on at all times.
But insurers would have to insert a clause stating that the deactivation of ADAS safety equipment would invalidate the policy – and I haven't yet heard of such a clause (with the exception of some manufacturers' test-drive policies on racing circuits).
Saying that, things can change, so it's always best to check your insurance policy to be sure. Indeed, that's the official advice offered by the Association of British Insurers.
But the chances are you don't have such a clause in your policy, so a claim wouldn't be invalidated by the discovery that you had turned off the driver assistance features.
However, keep in mind that disabling certain parts of your car's safety equipment could, in certain cases, get you in trouble with the police.
Let's say you had an accident because you had lost control of your car; you caused property damage, or worse, and the police got involved.
If you had disabled a non-ADAS function such as the traction control, the police may well take this as evidence you were driving dangerously and charge you as a result.
For all that, it's unlikely that deactivating ADAS systems like lane-keeping assistance or speed limit warnings would cause additional trouble.
After all, in the eyes of the law, it's your responsibility as a driver to keep control of the car and be aware of the speed limit regardless of whether the driver aids are on or off. As a result, it's unlikely that their activation or otherwise would make a difference – in much the same way that you might struggle to claim they were at fault if they mis-detected your speed.
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