Modern cars are loaded with safety features. We've had seat belts and air bags for years, but now our cars will warn us if we drift out of our lane or if another vehicle is approaching too closely, keep us from skidding on icy pavement, or even brake the car if someone walks in front of us.
But does this make us any safer?
That's the subject of this article from The Verge. If you own a newer car, you should read it. You might not be as safe as you think you are.
But upon examination, these new features are hardly the panacea that their boosters imply. Some elements presented as safety enhancements (like lane keep assist) may be little more than driver conveniences. For now, at least, those technologies that could save the most lives (like pedestrian detection) remain deeply unreliable. And even if ADAS eventually works flawlessly, it is likely to have only a modest impact on annual traffic deaths.
As the United States confronts a national crisis of traffic fatalities, carmakers and policymakers alike are focused on unproven and overhyped innovations. In reality, even the best technologies can’t compensate for the ways in which ill-conceived cars and poor street designs have made crashes more numerous and severe. We risk making our road safety crisis even worse by expecting car tech to bail us out.
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