Often referred to as advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), things like parking sensors, cruise control, autonomous emergency breaking, and lane assist are just some of the safety features found on most modern cars… but do you know what the safety features on your car do, and do you use them?

Some cars come with safety features as standard, while others can have these features added for a price. Remember though, if you have any modifications made to your car (even if they’re for safety) you’ll need to make your insurer aware. 

ADAS refers to a set of advanced driver assistance systems you’ll find in your car, designed to keep you safe. These features help drivers by automating certain driving functions with the use of sensors, cameras, and radars which monitor your surroundings, to help make split-second decisions. With almost all accidents caused by human error, their job is to makes your life easier and our roads safer.

• Autonomous emergency braking (AEB) . This system can sense an impending collision, so if you don’t react in time by hitting the brakes, this feature will apply your brakes autonomously.
• Active cruise control (ACC). It’s not quite self-driving but it maintains a set speed and will also slow down or speed up based on the distance from the car in front and general traffic conditions.
• Intelligent speed assist (ISA). This system uses road-sign recognition and GPS data to keep an eye on speed limits and will let you know if you go over them.
• Lane departure warning (LDW). Designed to help drivers avoid unintentional lane crossing, your car will gently guide you back on track if it senses you’re drifting.
• Traffic-jam assist. This feature works by combining active cruise control and lane-keeping assist, which allows your car to steer, accelerate, and brake autonomously in stop-start or slow-moving traffic.
• Blind-spot assist. Using sensors, blind-spot assist lets you know if there’s a car in your blind spot. Usually, this is in the form of an amber light or flashing light on your wing mirror.
• Rear cross-traffic alert. Using sensors to detect oncoming traffic from behind, an alarm or visual pop up will alert you if something’s coming your way.
• Hill-start assist. When you switch your foot from brake to accelerator, this system will temporarily hold the brakes to make sure you don’t roll back
• Road-sign recognition. Using cameras, this system checks and interprets road signs and will display them on your car’s digital interface or dashboard.
• Active headlights. These headlights alternate between high and low beams based on road conditions and visibility.
• Driver-attention detection. This system will alert you visually and audibly if it detects you’re distracted, based on the way you’re driving.  
• Parking sensors. This feature monitors your surroundings and often uses cameras to help you park – the system will beep to let you know if you’re getting to close to something.

Despite ADAS being there to keep drivers safe, many drivers choose to disable these features in favour of less alerts and pop ups. Distractions when driving are, of course, not a good thing, but turning of ADAS in favour of an uninterrupted journey could prove counterproductive, or worse, unsafe. Research shows an alarming number of drivers I the UK are opting to turn off the ADAS features in their cars, despite research also showing that the majority of road traffic incidents are caused by human error.

So, although ADAS features are commonplace in most modern cars, you’ll still need to pay close attention to the road and continue making decisions and do most of the driving for yourself. UK roads aren’t quite ready for automated, self-driving cars, but autonomous systems like ADAS can definitely help to keep us all safer.