Do advanced safety systems prevent car accidents?

When you walk onto the showroom floor of a New Mexico car dealership, salespeople will eagerly show you gleaming 2021 models with new lines and curves, more comfortable seats covered with better fabrics, and perhaps best of all, advanced safety systems that the salespeople insist will keep you and yours safe.

But are the safety claims true? Do Advanced Driver-Assistance Systems (ADAS) really work?

Spoiler alert: Yes

The quick answer is yes, ADAS systems do make drivers and passengers safer.

Research shows that ADAS-equipped vehicles reduce the frequency of insurance claims for bodily injuries in motor vehicle crashes by 27%. The systems have also been shown to reduce the frequency of property damage claims by 19%.

What exactly is an ADAS?

Before we dive deeper into the data, let’s first clarify what Advanced Driver-Assistance System means.

ADAS features include:

• Adaptive cruise control
• Forward and rear collision alerts
• Automatic emergency braking
• Blind-spot detection
• Lane departure alert
• Cross-traffic warning
• Pedestrian detection systems
• Road sign recognition

ADAS systems use an array of cameras, sensors and integrated processors to detect potential collisions and alert the driver, or to sometimes cause the vehicle to take braking action on its own.

Diving into the data

According to a recent Forbes article, studies show that ADAS-equipped vehicles are helping to make drivers safer. For instance, a study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) found that the crash-involvement rate for vehicles equipped with blind-spot monitoring was 14% lower than the crash rate for the same models without the monitoring system.

David Braunstein, president of Together For Safer Roads (a global coalition of companies collaborating on safety improvement) said the IIHS “study suggested that if every vehicle sold in the United States in 2015 was equipped with blind-spot monitoring, 50,000 crashes and 16,000 crash injuries might have been prevented.”

A Carnegie Mellon researcher told Forbes that his analysis of vehicle crash-avoidance systems showed that if the technologies were deployed in all passenger vehicles and light-duty commercial vehicles (pick-ups and vans), the crash frequency rate would be reduced by 3.5% – sparing lives, avoiding injuries and saving hundreds of billions of dollars each year.

Better days ahead

According to market research, the popularity of ADAS-equipped vehicles is on the rise, with global demand for ADAS projected to grow at a 12% clip over the next decade. Experts predict continued refinement of both ADAS software and hardware. All signs point to a near future with safer vehicles involved in fewer crashes causing injuries and fatalities.

If you suffer a serious injury due to a crash

Human error, including driver negligence, is still the leading cause of car accidents. If you or someone you love has been injured due to someone else’s negligent or reckless driving, you may be entitled to significant compensation for medical expenses, lost income and other costs. For more on that, please see our Car Accident FAQ.