Driver assists become de facto autopilots as drivers multitask, study finds

Enlarge / Lane keeping systems let you take your hands off the wheel while you drive. (credit: Getty Images)

The seductive lure of cars that drive themselves has led to an awful lot of hype over the past decade. Not everyone enjoys driving, after all, and the idea of freeing up the occupant to read their emails or watch a movie as their car grinds its way to their job led to billions in investments and a whole heck of a lot of GPU sales. We’re still a long way from being able to buy a car with fully autonomous driving, but every OEM wants to sell you some level of partial automation that accelerates, brakes, and steers for you. There’s just one problem—study after study shows these systems make us less safe on the road.

The latest data points come from a pair of studies just published by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), one studying drivers using Tesla’s Autopilot, the other focusing on Volvo’s Pilot Assist. Both found that when drivers use partially automated driving systems, they pay less attention to the road and start multitasking instead.

The studies were conducted by IIHS together with the Center for Transportation and Logistics at MIT’s AgeLab. The studies used Volvo S90 sedans and 2020 Tesla Model 3s, equipped with an array of cameras and sensors to monitor and record driver behavior.