Summary
- Lane keeping assist can malfunction due to various factors like dirt, shadows, or worn road markings.
- Phantom braking in Autonomous Emergency Braking can lead to accidents if sensors misread objects or merge lanes incorrectly.
- Blind spot monitor failures may cause drivers to rely too heavily on the technology, leading to sideswipes or collisions.
Advanced driver assist systems (ADAS) are supposed to make your driving easier and safer, and they do that. Features like adaptive cruise control, lane-keeping assist, and automatic emergency braking are wonderful to have when they work well. But, when they don’t, ADAS can range from annoying to terrifying.
Most cars made in this decade will have some level of ADAS built into them, and who wouldn’t want the car to brake hard when a pedestrian wanders onto the road? Or warn you when you are about to reverse into another car?
Yet many drivers are turning off their ADAS, or trying to turn them off. New technology often doesn’t work perfectly to start with, but what would be an annoyance in a new phone can be deadly in a car going at 50 mph. There is no doubt that ADAS can make driving a lot safer, but it feels as if carmakers are sometimes rushing this technology. Here are five of the worst cases where ADAS turns from a feature into a bug.
In this list, I do not point to the ADAS used by specific carmakers. I am generally in favor of ADAS, as long as it is used to make driving easier and safer. I rely on technology in all aspects of my life, but when an app on my phone malfunctions, it is merely an annoyance. When ADAS fails, it can be fatal. The DA in ADAS stands for driver assist, and as long as you treat it as such, you should be okay. Just don’t bet your life on it.
1
Lane-keeping assist malfunction
Great idea, easily confused
Lane keeping assist uses a camera to track the markings between lanes and on the edge of the road. If you stray too close to the edge or cross the line without indicating, it will first alert you, and then gently correct your steering.
Causes of malfunctions
Dirt, sand, rain, snow, or leaves can obscure the lane markings, and even a shadow across the road can confuse the system. Worn, badly painted, or complicated road markings can also cause the system to malfunction, while hardware or software problems are fairly common as well.
Result of a malfunction
The system will send false alerts, and can cause the car to drive erratically and weave within the lane. It can also suddenly stop working, which can be dangerous if the driver assumes it is still functional.
2
Phantom braking
Will mitigate collision, can cause same
Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB) automatically applies the brakes when its sensors — cameras, radar, lidar — detect a probable collision and the driver does not react. It is a great idea, because the slower the vehicle is going, the less severe the impact.
Causes of malfunction
Besides system malfunctions or dirt on the sensors, phantom braking can be caused by many factors, including:
- Shadows and the edges of overpasses are sometimes misread as objects
- Bright sunlight on the windshield can confuse camera sensors and cause sudden braking
- Objects like streetlights, manhole covers, or debris on the road
- Vehicles in adjacent lanes or those merging can be misidentified
Result of phantom braking
If a car suddenly slams on its brakes on a busy road, the chances of an accident become very likely. The car braking may be rear-ended by the car behind, while cars trying to avoid an accident may be involved in sideswipes or even head-on collisions.
3
Blind spot monitor failure
Oops, and more
There’s a small arch behind and to the side of your car where you cannot see another vehicle in either your rearview mirror or wing mirror. A blind spot monitor is a sensor, normally embedded in the rear fender, that will pick up this invisible car and alert you with a warning light in your wing mirror.
It’s a brilliant idea, and when it works properly, a great way to make your driving safer. Blind spot monitoring works so well that I no longer bother to crane my neck to check when merging in an awkward curve. And the danger is when you fully trust technology and it suddenly stops working.
Causes of malfunction
- Hardware failure, from a loose wire to a faulty sensor
- Dirt on the sensor
- Software failure
- Faulty warning signal, ranging from no warning to signaling on the wrong side of the car
Results of malfunction
Driving into the space of the vehicle behind you can result in anything from screeching brakes and angry hooting to a serious sideswipe that can cause your car to roll. A faulty signal on the wrong side can cause you to veer the wrong way. A blind-spot monitor is such a brilliant piece of tech that we completely rely on it, which means we are never prepared for when it stops working.
4
Adaptive cruise control
Sensor errors, overload
Adaptive cruise control is like normal cruise control, but it can sense the traffic in front of the car and adjust the speed to keep a safe following distance. It’s a joy to have in rush-hour traffic, but because it takes such an active part in the way the car drives, a malfunction can have serious consequences.
Causes of malfunction
- Poor visibility because of rain, snow, fog, or wind-blown dust and leaves can confuse the sensors
- Blocked or dirty sensors can malfuntion
- A misaligned or damaged sensor
- Curves in the road, steep hills, or uneven road surfaces
- A stopped vehicle or one that brakes rapidly in front of your car
Results of malfunction
The system can start giving false alerts in rural or desert conditions, or on complicated roadways. It can also stay so far behind the car in front that other drivers will continuously push in front of you. The system can also cause the vehicle to slow down suddenly in a dangerous situation, or fail to slow down because it did not recognize an obstacle.
5
Unexpected disengagement
Relying on a false sense of security
This is the biggest issue with ADAS in general: when one of the features suddenly stops working without the driver realizing. Because they generally work so well, drivers, myself included, feel able to relax and not pay as much attention to the road as we should.
Causes of unexpected disengagement
- All electronics can stop working at any stage, but most do not do so at 60 mph
- Hardware can stop working because of damage, wear and tear, dirt on the sensors, or even adverse weather conditions
- Software can misread signals, suffer data overload, or just stop working
Results of unexpected disengagement
When an ADAS suddenly stops working without the driver realizing it, the results can be anything from backing into the car behind you to causing a severe accident. Until we reach the stage where true autonomous driving is possible, we should treat ADAS for what it is: driver assistance, and not self-driving.
