CR Delivers Advanced Driver Assistance Systems Guidelines to Automakers
Our detailed guidance suggests ways to make these high-tech safety systems easier for owners to use
In an effort to decrease confusion about advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and increase their use, Consumer Reports today provided detailed guidelines to automakers to help them design more user-friendly controls and displays.
The ADAS features found on many of today’s new vehicles—including adaptive cruise control (ACC), lane centering assistance (LCA), lane departure warning (LDW), and lane keeping assistance (LKA)—can help make driving easier and safer. But CR has found that consumers are often confused about what the various systems are capable of doing, as well as what all the different displays and alerts inside the car are trying to tell the driver. That confusion can lead to drivers disabling the systems and, consequently, losing whatever safety benefits and convenience they provide.
Better Design Will Equal Greater Satisfaction
The purpose of CR’s report and guidance on ADAS, which is being shared with automakers, policymakers, and auto safety organizations, is simple, says Kelly Funkhouser, CR’s manager of vehicle technology: “We want to help automakers develop and implement ADAS that promote increased driver understanding, acceptance, and satisfaction with these systems so that more drivers will use them and benefit from the safety they provide."
The information in the report is based on extensive survey data from CR members who have used these systems in their own vehicles, along with our own market-wide testing of ADAS features. CR’s auto experts are uniquely qualified to provide feedback on ADAS, because they evaluate these systems as part of the detailed road-test regimen conducted on every vehicle that goes through the testing program at the Auto Test Center in Colchester, Conn.
“We viewed it all with an eye toward which systems are more likely to be enjoyed, and therefore used, by owners,” Funkhouser says. The guidelines shared with automakers spell out what CR’s auto experts have determined are the best design, functionality, and performance characteristics of ADAS features.
Adjustability: It’s What the Consumers Want
Most of the information within the report comes from responses collected from the 2021 ADAS Survey of CR members, in which owners of more than 35,000 vehicles shared insights into their understanding and satisfaction of ADAS features, as well as how often they actually use the systems.
Survey responses revealed that CR members prefer ADAS features that allow for more driver customization. This includes such things as the ability to adjust the acceleration and deceleration levels of ACC; how quickly a lane keeping or lane departure system intervenes; and the ability to choose the type of warning given (e.g. a beeping chime, steering-wheel vibration, or steering-wheel tug). CR’s experts believe that adding driver adjustability to more ADAS features could lead to both higher satisfaction and usage rates.
“Frequent false alarms or annoying beeps can be minimized, or eliminated, by allowing the driver to make sensitivity adjustments. And the type of alert should also be capable of being tailored to the driver’s preference,” says Funkhouser.
In-Car Explanations Will Lead to Increased Use
CR’s report also provides automakers with suggestions for how to make ADAS features easier to understand. This includes displays and warnings within the driver’s instrument cluster that offer more information as to why an ADAS feature has suddenly disabled itself, or why it wouldn’t activate in the first place. Those reasons could vary, such as bad weather or an upcoming construction zone or a sharp curve ahead—but the reasons often aren’t clearly conveyed to the driver, and sometimes aren’t given at all, leading some drivers to disable the systems entirely.
Most automakers also need to do a better job explaining to drivers what the various systems are capable of doing, for instance with a small callout of text within the infotainment screen.
“Consumers seek out ADAS features that promise improved safety and convenience when they are shopping for new vehicles,” says Funkhouser. “But if they don’t understand what the feature is supposed to do, how it works, or even how to turn it on or off, they may not use the feature after they buy the vehicle.”
Clearing the Confusion
This ADAS design guidance to automakers follows CR’s years-long collaboration with other leading consumer safety and education organizations—including AAA, J.D. Power, the National Safety Council, Partners for Automated Vehicle Education (PAVE), and SAE International—to develop standardized naming conventions for ADAS technologies.
Manufacturers use a dizzying array of names and symbols for their new driver assist systems, and they aren’t always consistent between their advertisements, in-car menus and displays, steering-wheel buttons, and the owner’s manual. This makes knowing what each system does, and when it’s operating, confusing to people.
Together with these organizations, CR has been pushing automakers to adopt standardized ADAS terminology to help reduce consumer confusion about the intent and functionality of these systems. This includes agreed-upon terms such as forward collision warning (FCW), automatic emergency braking (AEB), lane departure warning (LDW), lane centering assistance (LCA), lane keeping assistance (LKA), and adaptive cruise control (ACC), among others.
Industry adoption of these terms will lead to less confusion, whether it’s when the consumer is shopping for a vehicle on an automaker’s website, looking at the car’s window sticker on the dealer lot, or viewing the driver assistance menu within the car’s instrument cluster or infotainment screen.
