Fewer Drivers Are Turning Off Lane Prevention Tech

In recent years, new vehicles have incorporated more and more safety technology features, all aimed at reducing accidents and deaths on our roadways. Thus far, consumers have embraced this safety tech more than self-driving vehicles and autonomous features, which has also benefited older drivers more than most. However, these features can also be turned off, which has been an issue in the past for those trying to get drivers to embrace them. Luckily for those same parties, it seems as if fewer drivers are doing that these days.

According to a new study from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), nearly nine out of 10 drivers of vehicles equipped with lane departure warning and prevention systems now keep them switched on, while seven out of 10 drivers of vehicles that give visual alerts when they exceed the speed limit also keep that feature running. This is critical because, as the IIHS claims, around 23 percent of total crashes in the U.S. involving passenger vehicles could be avoided with these features, though a low activation rate has thus far kept that from coming to fruition.

Thus, these latest figures are encouraging, given the fact that eight years ago, a similar query discovered that only 51 percent of drivers left these systems activated, a figure that has now grown to 87 percent. The new study also found that systems that are activated and deactivated through the in-vehicle settings menu, rather than a button, were more likely to be switched on. Seven years ago, only one of the observed models was designed that way, while a little more than half of vehicles in the new sample were. That is likely one factor contributing to the increased use.

“These results hint at a growing awareness that crash avoidance systems and other technologies can improve safety,” said IIHS President David Harkey. “They also indicate that automakers’ efforts to increase usage rates have been a success. The increased acceptance of lane departure prevention should translate into larger reductions in crash rates. The same thing can happen with anti-speeding alerts – which these results show are already more popular with drivers than some experts believed possible.”