Consumer Study: Drivers turning off "annoying" driver safety systems

[diplomat33]

Quote from the article:

"J.D. Power's 2019 U.S. Tech Experience Index study found that:

• 23% of customers with lane-keeping and centering systems complain that the alerts are annoying or bothersome.
• For these owners, 61% sometimes disable the system.
• The technologies can "come across as a nagging parent; no one wants to be constantly told they aren’t driving correctly," says Kolodge.

The bottom line: Dealers play an important role in teaching buyers about their car's safety technologies, but owners need to be able to trust that the systems will kick in when they are supposed to. Their first experience with lower-level automation will affect how they view self-driving cars in the future."

Drivers turn off "annoying" safety tech

 

[jerry33]

23% of customers with lane-keeping and centering systems complain that the alerts are annoying or bothersome.

• For these owners, 61% sometimes disable the system.

So that's 23 x 0.61 = 14% or better than 85% acceptance. That's actually not bad.

 

[diplomat33]

So that's 23 x 0.61 = 14% or better than 85% acceptance. That's actually not bad.

Generally speaking, 85% is not bad. But that still leaves 15% of drivers who could potentially cause accidents because they are not taking advantage of a driver safety system.

 

[Octo]

I never turn off LKA and blind spot monitoring in my Porsche. Because they are very reliable and improve safety.

I never turn on (anymore) any of the AP funtions in my Tesla. Because they are not reliable enough to be more than a novelty.

 

[Tam]

...but owners need to be able to trust that the systems will kick in when they are supposed to. Their first experience with lower-level automation will affect how they view self-driving cars in the future."

I have a problem with those who encourage blind "trust" without verifications.

If the system works reliably then there's no need for "trust", it just works and there are no false alarms to raise distrusts.

Some want to poll to see people would trust autonomous vehicles and airplanes then disappointed that not many more trust to board a pilotless airplane.

That's the wrong approach! They should have third parties (like Consumer Reports) to conduct extensive tests and show them to consumers then trust will come if they work reliably.

 

[diplomat33]

I have a problem with those who encourage blind "trust" without verifications.

If the system works reliably then there's no need for "trust", it just works and there are no false alarms to raise distrusts.

Some want to poll to see people would trust autonomous vehicles and airplanes then disappointed that not many more trust to board a pilotless airplane.

That's the wrong approach! They should have third parties (like Consumer Reports) to conduct extensive tests and show them to consumers then trust will come if they work reliably.

I don't think the article is encouraging blind trust. But it is making the argument that the first experience that owners have with a driver assist system may color their perception of autonomous driving. If they have a bad experience with driver assist, then they will be less likely to be optimistic about autonomous driving. So it is even more critical that companies deliver good driver assist systems in order to build trust with owners for when they do get to autonomous driving.

 

[vickh]

I'm actually considering turning off lane centering to just warning or maybe off on my SR 3 (no AP) It's too "picky" when centering and causes me to get to close to comfort to others

I do like the AEB and other warning chimes though. I believe those are auto enabled?

 

[AlanSubie4Life]

Quote from the article:

"J.D. Power's 2019 U.S. Tech Experience Index study found that:

• 23% of customers with lane-keeping and centering systems complain that the alerts are annoying or bothersome.
• For these owners, 61% sometimes disable the system.
• The technologies can "come across as a nagging parent; no one wants to be constantly told they aren’t driving correctly," says Kolodge.

The bottom line: Dealers play an important role in teaching buyers about their car's safety technologies, but owners need to be able to trust that the systems will kick in when they are supposed to. Their first experience with lower-level automation will affect how they view self-driving cars in the future."

Drivers turn off "annoying" safety tech

Spent a bunch of money 3 years ago on a Toyota Highlander with all the assistance features that were available. My wife routinely turns off the parking alerts and the lane keep assist, primarily because they make such a horrific noise and she is sensitive to the noise.

It drives me nuts, since now collisions (hopefully only with the garage) are now inevitable. Should probably either invest in Toyota programming unit to see if there is access to turn down the volume or change the alerts, or go to Toyota and ask them to turn them down.

It would have been far better for Toyota to pick some pleasing tones, or change the threshold for an actual alert on lane departure.

Generally Tesla has had some pretty decent alert sounds which aren't too harsh, and they also do allow some adjustability of sensitivity for harsh alerts (like FCW); only the most serious problems warrant an obnoxious alarm.

 

[EVNow]

Spent a bunch of money 3 years ago on a Toyota Highlander with all the assistance features that were avaialble. My wife routinely turns off the parking alerts and the lane keep assist, primarily because it makes such a horrific noise and she is sensitive to the noise.

In our new Sienna - the lane departure warning was too "sensitive" and we had to turn it down. Basically it would sound the alarm even if we got close to the line (or sometimes just in the middle). Definitely worse than Tesla. With sensitivity down, it only sounds now if we go close to the line

• 23% of customers with lane-keeping and centering systems complain that the alerts are annoying or bothersome.

• For these owners, 61% sometimes disable the system.

Interestingly even though my wife complained a lot about alerts, she didn't want to disable them.

Ofcourse, she doesn't use AP on the Tesla - nor wants me to use it when I drive with her. Kids, though, want me to use "self driving" all the time.

 

[AlanSubie4Life]

In our new Sienna - the lane departure warning was too "sensitive" and we had to turn it down.

How did you accomplish this (is there an adjustment in the car now? or did the dealer have to adjust it?), and did turning down the sensitivity of the warning also affect the strength of the lane keeping (which is super weak in a 2017 Highlander)?

The parking dings and tones in the Tesla are SO much better than the incessant beeping of the parking sensors in the Highlander. There's a lot more dinging in the Tesla, actually, but it's far more pleasing.

The downside I guess is that people might calmly drive into an object, as they are lost in their reverie listening to the pleasing tones. Though I've always felt like the progression of sounds in the Tesla is logical and easy to understand. When you get very very close it gets pretty harsh!

Manufacturers need to pick their tone design carefully.

 

[EVNow]

How did you accomplish this (is there an adjustment in the car now? or did the dealer have to adjust it?), and did turning down the sensitivity of the warning also affect the strength of the lane keeping (which is super weak in a 2017 Highlander)?

Its an in-car adjustment. Looks like it just reduces when it sounds the alarm, not the lane keeping.

The parking dings and tones in the Tesla are SO much better than the incessant beeping of the parking sensors in the Highlander. There's a lot more dinging in the Tesla, actually, but it's far more pleasing.

We don't have those parking alarms in our van (its an XLE) - but the lane keeping ones are very annoying, esp., when wrong.

The downside I guess is that people might calmly drive into an object, as they are lost in their reverie listening to the pleasing tones. Though I've always felt like the progression of sounds in the Tesla is logical and easy to understand. When you get very very close it gets pretty harsh!

Manufacturers need to pick their tone design carefully.

Yes - Tesla chimes/alarms are fine and they get higher pitch as the object gets closer.

 

[Richt]

At Least for us, the alerts and the autopilot stuff has been getting much better over time. So if you tried it once, it’s not a bad idea to try it again sometime.

Just did 150 miles round trip with the 2019.32 and was surprised how much things like NOA has improved even since this July. Of course everyone’s experience and needs are different. YMMV

 

[willow_hiller]

Remember how many people on TMC were angry you couldn't permanently disable ELDA? I was shocked so many people were rushing to turn safety features off: Emergency Lane Departure - False Positives

 

[Octo]

Remember how many people on TMC were angry you couldn't permanently disable ELDA? I was shocked so many people were rushing to turn safety features off: Emergency Lane Departure - False Positives

Why were you shocked? I don’t think people would turn this off if it actually worked well.

But it doesn’t. It says it right in the thread title: False Positives.

That’s my main beef with everything around Tesla’s autonomy execution.

It’s all half baked beta quality, fun to play around with but that’s it.
It isn’t some benign Google (or other silicon valley tech company) beta but a system that controls thousands of pounds moving at highway speeds and responsible people will not use this as long as it isn’t working reliably enough.

One frantic false positive warning, or worse, false positive evasive maneuver (extreme braking or steering adjustment at highway speeds for no reason) and I feel safer driving without something that half baked and frankly potentially dangerous.

 

[willow_hiller]

Why were you shocked? I don’t think people would turn this off if it actually worked well.

But it doesn’t. It says it right in the thread title: False Positives.

That’s my main beef with everything around Tesla’s autonomy execution.

It’s all half baked beta quality, fun to play around with but that’s it.
It isn’t some benign Google (or other silicon valley tech company) beta but a system that controls thousands of pounds moving at highway speeds and responsible people will not use this as long as it isn’t working reliably enough.

One frantic false positive warning, or worse, false positive evasive maneuver (extreme braking or steering adjustment at highway speeds for no reason) and I feel safer driving without something that half baked and frankly potentially dangerous.

I've got every safety feature in my SR+ turned on, and I feel safer for it. On a few occasions the forward collision warning has actually alerted me to a car stopped suddenly in front of me. I value those true-positives much more highly than the annoyance of some false-positives.

 

[AlanSubie4Life]

Its an in-car adjustment.

So sad. I do remember there being some adjustments for chime volumes, but my recollection is we have them all set to minimum and it was not clear what each volume adjustment was doing on Toyota's clusterf* of an Entune system. Maybe they've added more granularity more recently.

 

[Daniel in SD]

I like forward collision warning but I have all the lane keeping crap turned off. I leave ELDA on because it gives me a bit of an adrenaline rush when it activates (though it hasn't done so in months ).

 

[diplomat33]

I've rarely experienced LDA or ELDA probably because I drive with AP on almost all the time. The couple times when I did experience LDA, it worked great. I had drifted a bit in my lane and my wheels almost touched the center line and it nudged me back correctly. I am glad LDA helped me in those cases.

 

[AlanSubie4Life]

I have all the lane keeping crap turned off

You should try it once or twice on "Assist" mode. It's really good practice for making sure you stay precisely centered in your lane, and it's surprisingly tolerant of veering out of your lane when necessary. Just once or twice, to check it out. No vibration of the wheel (and actually I think it is less sensitive than the warn mode - though not sure about that).

 

[S4WRXTTCS]

The biggest issue I have with these is never really knowing exactly what triggered them in the first place.

This is especially difficult with the Model 3 because I'm not going to look at the screen when my attention needs to be on the road. I really wish the Model 3 kept an Event log along with snapshot pictures/video.

Sometimes these events are obviously like a good example is someone turning a right in front of me, but where they'll be mostly out of my lane. I know I'm good, but the FCW will beep as it's not smart enough to realize there is already enough clearance.

Other times they're not obvious at all. Like a few days ago I was in my Jeep Wrangler, and I was turning left along with another vehicle. He took it way wide, and so I made sure to stay well behind him because I was unsure of what he was going to do. At this point the Jeep starts beeping at me loudly like I'm going to be squished. I looked around, and didn't see anything. I have no idea what triggered it. Maybe something about the angle. The other guy was so far wide, and was coming back that it looked weird.

Aside from the not knowing I'm mostly happy with FCW stuff on the various vehicles I have. it's not obtrusive enough to turn off, and it's also extremely beneficial as a second set of eyes.

LDW I find is REALLY obtrusive, and annoying. On my AP1 Model S I almost immediately turned it off. On the Model 3 I believe it even defaults to being off or maybe I'm not remembering correctly as that seems odd. I have another vehicle with it, and on it I leave it on. I do because the use cases are completely different. It's a massive 4x4 Sprinter Van that I use for road trips. So I'm more concerned with zoning off. Not like I tend to zone off, but you never know. It's also really easy to temporarily turn off as there is button for it. On my moms Subaru I turn off LDW

Parking Sensors - They're awful in pretty much every vehicle I've ever owned/used. The problem is ALL THE BEEPING. It's really a UX issue of needing to leave people alone unless something is actually getting close to hitting. But, they'll start beeping well before.

AEB - Haven't had much issue with it in any of the vehicles I've owned. It's supposed to be last resort kind of thing, and I'm a little concerned about the desire to have these things be more because that increases the chance of false events.

The new Emergency Lane Departure System from Tesla - I experienced one false event, and turned it off. I was glad that they changed the setting so it doesn't automatically turn back on on the next start up. The issue with this it's an active safety thing that hasn't been all that well tested.