Are 'Advanced Driver Assistance Systems' Making Us Worse Drivers

An anonymous reader quotes ZDNet:Advanced driver assistance systems are becoming on the norm even on midlevel cars. For safety advocates that seems like good news: Systems designed to prevent crashes should, after all, result in fewer crashes. But what if that thinking is flawed' A new report from AAA suggests that might be the case and that our increasing use of driver assistance systems may actually be resulting in higher rates of distracted driving. "This study drives home that engaged drivers are the key to staying safe," says Stefan Heck, CEO of Nauto, which makes driver monitoring technology... "Distracted driving is surging as the next major health epidemic, the top cause of fatal and injury collisions. It's imperative that automakers embed technology that doesn't lull drivers into a false sense of security -- -and instead keeps them focused on the road no matter what...." Data from one of these studies indicates that the simultaneous use of advanced driver assistance systems was associated with a 50% increase in the odds of engaging in any form of secondary task and an 80% increase in the odds of engaging in visual and/or manual secondary tasks, compared to the same drivers who were not using the automated system. In the other study, speeding related errors were present 19% of the time when driver assistance systems were in use, a higher rate than when driver assistance was available but turned off. In the same study, drowsy driving was present more often when driver assistance systems were active (5.4% of the time versus 3.4% when no system was active), indicating a possible detrimental effect of automation use associated with driver alertness.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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