Safety Tech sucks! Why 5-star safety is ruining cars.
I have the privileged opportunity to drive lots of different cars and for the first time ever, I feel like cars are getting worse. I have been in the car industry for over 20 years, and I am constantly surprised by how car manufacturers can continually improve car features and comfort. I have also taken for granted how much safer a modern car has become, however in the past couple of years safety technology advances are no longer passive – new ‘improvements’ are intrusive.
Australia’s safety rating organisation is ANCAP which is responsible for setting safety requirements and in addition to testing cars against that standard – the rating that all manufacturers aim for is 5-star and the buying public has been educated to believe that anything less than 5-star is unsafe. In fact, government departments, fleets, rentals and ride-share insist on it.
But what does it take to launch a car today rated as 5-star?
From 2023, an increased weighting is attributed to active safety features such as driver monitoring, lane keep assistance, and collision avoidance – cars I drove prior to 2023 would have these features but would nudge you by vibrating the steering wheel or beeping. But now, new cars are taking over the controls and I would argue making driving less safe. Here are my latest experiences:
- Almost daily, on a two-lane road I am confronted with a car parked in the left lane where there is enough room to merge into the next lane to get around it. Obviously, I look into my blind spot and in addition to blind spot monitoring, I am confident that there is no car in the lane beside me. However, the emergency lane keeping resists my steering intention and forcibly steers me back into the centre of the left lane. The problem is, that there is a car in my lane I am trying to avoid.
- While reversing my car out of a shady car park, the cross-traffic alert suddenly slams on the brakes and beeps like I am on life support and I am about to depart. The problem is, there is no car coming and now the car refuses to budge.
- While driving on an undulating open country road, my car suddenly slammed on the brakes because it sensed an object on the road in front of me. The problem is, there is nothing there and my wife is now questioning whether I am losing my mind.
These issues are not exclusive to one brand, I have experienced all these issues in newly released Chinese, Japanese, and Korean-made cars and I have had friends and family complain about the same in European cars as well.
OEMs are stuffing these features into new cars so they can get the required 5-star rating, and now it is stuffing up my confidence in a new car to keep me safe.