Effectiveness of Collision Avoidance and Lane Departure Warning

[buckhead]

IIHS Study: Collision Avoidance and Adaptive Headlights Effective, Lane Departure Warning Not

Interestingly the claim is that Lane Departure Warning may actually increase the number of accidents, although not by a "statistically significant amount". It's kind of surprising that adaptive headlights, invented in the 1930s, have not been more prominent. It's too bad that neither active collision avoidance or adaptive headlights are available on the volt, although hopefully we'll see this in a future incarnation of the car, along with other safety features like VW's Dynamic Light Assist.

[ronr64]

I see a big problem with this study. The article states that these are pricey options. Well there you go! The only ones buying these options then are those concerned with safety enough to pony up extra bucks to get the option. I would argue that these people are more concerned about safety then the general population. Now could be the article got it wrong and the study, if one was to take the time to read it, accounted for this in some way. But if not then this data is useless to anyone but insurance companies who can use it to identify customers who will drive more safely - not cars that are safer.

[DonC]

I saw this study and didn't see anything wrong with it. They simply compared the same models with and without the options. The study authors agreed the results were puzzling but they are what they are. Note that some of the safety features did prove to be safer.

I would also like to see more active safety features on the Volt. I've had adaptive cruise control and active collision avoidance on some other cars and they do work. You're zooming down the freeway and suddenly your car hits the brakes, and you realize it's spotted that the traffic ahead has come to a complete stop. Then all you have to worry about is whether the driver behind you has seen it in time! Hopefully these features and adaptive headlights, like seatbelts and other safety devices, will make their way into lower end models like the Volt. Longer run my hope is that all cars begin communicating. Imagine if you were zooming down the freeway and your car and the cars behind you all knew that traffic had come to a stop a mile ahead.

[dax777]

I have both of these features on my Prius and find them very useful especially during long drives on dark roads with few other cars. I wish these options were available on the Volt

[Powered7]

Collision avoidance and lane departure systems will be options on the 2013 Chevrolet Volt. I'm not yet sure if these will be standard.

Source: http://green.autoblog.com/2012/06/07...-get-detailed/

[gadgeTT]

Collision avoidance and lane departure systems will be options on the 2013 Chevrolet Volt. I'm not yet sure if these will be standard.

Yah - these are both included in the new Enhanced Safety Package 2 which I ordered with my 2013 Volt. It's supposedly in production (code 3300) so hopefully I'll see these in action soon :-)

[AySz88]

ronr64 is right in that we don't quite know the causation arrow here, but they did control for a few things that might correlate with safety-mindedness. According to the press release (I haven't found the original study):

The crash avoidance systems studied were all offered as optional equipment. The automakers supplied HLDI with identification numbers of vehicles that had each feature, allowing HLDI to compare the insurance records for those vehicles with the same models without the feature. In each analysis, HLDI controlled for factors that could influence claim rates, including driver age and gender, garaging state and collision deductible.

So we don't quite know the absolute level of actual increased or decreased risk, but it's probably the best that can be done without a test where someone gives the features to (or withholds the features from) people at random and compares the two populations. And it's something that would likely affect all three options near-equally - so the fact that, say, forward collision avoidance is better than lane departure is probably a real effect.

[awm]

"Lane departure warning on Mercedes caused more accidents than they prevented": This is a strange claim. The lane departure warning on the Mercedes is so subtle that I cannot imagine that anyone would jerk the steering wheel around and cause an accident.

Forward collision avoidance systems (at least the ones I know from Infiniti and Mercedes) are outstanding and I would not be surprised if they were required in all cars within 10 years.

[buckhead]

I missed this earlier review that Nick Saporito did of the same features for the GMC Terrain. He seemed to like GM's implementation and thinks it's worth the money.

[petefoss]

I missed this earlier review that Nick Saporito did of the same features for the GMC Terrain. He seemed to like GM's implementation and thinks it's worth the money.

I've driven quite a few of our vehicles with the blind spot sensors on the outside mirrors and find it very effective. I've only driven a couple of vehicles with lane departure and it wasn't as effective for me. With a HUD or the vibrating seat I suspect it would be a lot better. But I don't find the flashing icon on the gauge cluster very helpful for me.