How Does New Technology in Cars Affect Your Risk of Accidents?

In the time it takes to read a single text message, a car traveling at highway speeds covers the length of a football field. Even if the road is clear when you look down, you won’t be able to react to a vehicle suddenly slowing down or changing lanes. Even if you have an infotainment screen on the dashboard, you still need to look away from the road to read the message, select a new song or check your Google Maps location. 

The statistics show how dangerous these momentary changes in focus can be for drivers. In 2021, 3,522 people died on U.S. roads due to distracted driving. 

While some new features create more distraction-related dangers, other systems help mitigate accident risks. Here is a closer look at the new protections and dangers technology brings to the road. 

The Dangers of Distracted Driving

Texas state law provides a glimpse into the types of regulations designed to prevent distracted driving due to phone usage. It is illegal to send text messages while driving. Drivers under 18 and all drivers passing through school zones cannot operate phones at all. The law also extends to other handheld devices, such as tablets. 

These rules address one of the most common causes of distracted driving: cell phones. However, distractions extend far beyond smartphone screens. Other examples of distracted driving include:

• Tuning the car radio or selecting a song on your infotainment system
• Eating
• Grooming yourself or looking at yourself in the visor mirror
• Looking for items on the floor or in the center console compartments
• Adjusting the climate controls
• Looking over when you talk to a passenger

Distracted driving extends to any other action that causes you to take your eyes off the road so that you cannot react normally to changing traffic or take reasonable evasive maneuvers to avoid an accident. 

In-Car Technology: Pros and Cons for Safety

In-car technology has evolved rapidly in recent years. While features like anti-lock brakes (ABS) and cruise control date back to the 1900s, most impactful safety technologies came onto the market after 2010. 

While these technologies, collectively known as advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) help reduce accidents due to distracted driving, other advances in navigation, entertainment and communication provide additional distractions. Unfortunately, the more distractions there are while people are driving, the more chances there are for distracted driving crashes that may cause injuries. Therefore, it’s extremely important to avoid distractions from in-car tech, thereby lessening the chances that you or someone else could be injured on the road. 

Here’s a closer look at these advances and how they impact drivers. 

Integration technology for smartphones

As of 2023, over 50 percent of new cars are connected and that number should increase to 95 percent by 2030. As the term suggests, a connected car can connect to the internet and has integrations for smartphones, such as Android Auto and Apple CarPlay.    

As with all in-car tech, smartphone integration has its positives and negatives—here are the pros:

• You can make calls, get directions, send texts and control apps with your voice, hands-free.
• Head-up displays allow you to view the phone’s navigation information on your windshield, meaning you don’t take your eyes off the road.
• Weather apps can alert you about potential poor road conditions. 

The cons of smartphone integration in vehicles are usually related to distracted driving:

• Console displays still require you to take your eyes off the road to see information.
• You might still take one hand off the wheel and your eyes off the road if your smartphone or console display malfunctions or you simply want to change to a different app.
• Distractions like social media direct messages and text messages may pop up on the car’s console screen during use. 

If you have a phone when you get in an accident, you may have some or all of the liability for the crash, regardless of the hands-free integration tech you were operating at the time of the accident.

If you are involved in an accident with another driver who was using their car’s smartphone integration feature and you’re injured, it’s possible the other driver was distracted. In that case, they may be liable for the medical bills and other damages from your injury, such as emotional distress. A personal injury attorney can help you sort this out.  

Advanced driver assistance systems

Advanced driver assistance systems use various sensors to collect data on driver actions and road conditions. Most of these systems rely on cameras, radar sensors and light detection and ranging (lidar) devices. 

The car’s onboard computer uses the information from these sensors to alert drivers about potential dangers. It can also interface with electronic control units (ECUs) in the vehicle to adjust speed, apply brakes and steer the vehicle to avoid collisions if the driver doesn’t respond in time. 

Here are five of the most common ADAS in today’s cars. 

• Forward collision warning (FCW) systems use radar, lidar and cameras to detect dangers on the road and alert the driver to slow down or steer to avoid a potential collision. Warnings can include a blinking icon, an audible beep or ping and a haptic warning, such as a vibration in the steering wheel. 
• Automatic emergency braking (AEB) uses the same sensors as the FCW system, but they interface with onboard controllers that apply the brakes if the driver doesn’t respond to the initial alerts. 
• Lane departure warning/correction systems use cameras to detect lane markers. They first offer audible, visual or haptic warnings. Some advanced systems can correct steering to keep you in the lane. 
• Adaptive cruise control uses radar and lidar sensors to detect other vehicles on the road. It can autonomously lower speeds and raise them again to keep a safe following distance. 
• Blind spot detection uses sensors to detect vehicles beside and behind your car. It sends visible alerts in the form of a lighted icon in your side mirrors or a beep. 

These systems can reduce crashes. For instance, forward collision warning and emergency braking lower the chance of front-to-rear crashes by 50 percent. However, many drivers over-rely on the systems. A 2019 study by AAA found that drivers were 80 percent more likely to engage in secondary tasks when the ADAS were engaged. 

Entertainment systems

Car entertainment systems are becoming more robust. Most vehicles have touchscreen infotainment panels with voice controls and video modes for viewing areas outside or inside the car. 

Here is a look at the advantages of these new systems.

• With voice controls, drivers can manipulate the system while keeping their hands on the wheel. 
• Apple CarPlay and Android Auto allow smartphone connections, which limits the need for using handheld devices.
• Rear seat screens offer gaming or movies to children so that they remain content during trips. 

There are also safety-related disadvantages to these new systems. 

• Infotainment screens may still tempt you to take your eyes off the road.
• The enhanced connectivity presents you with more chances for distraction. 
• Some features may not work with voice controls. 

Used correctly, modern infotainment systems can limit dangers with features like voice controls. However, they also present more distractions drivers must avoid to remain safe. 

Automated parking assist

Automated parking assist systems use cameras and radar to steer vehicles into parallel or perpendicular parking spots. This feature is a convenience that can help you avoid damaging your vehicle or others during parking. 

Here are the advantages of parking assistance:

• These systems increase safety and limit the chance of fender benders or scratches. 
• Automated parking saves time by limiting steering corrections. 
• The system can back into spaces to prepare you for an easy exit. 

There are some disadvantages to automated parking:

• Poor conditions or reduced visibility can harm the system’s accuracy. 
• The system may not detect some impediments, such as low curbs or thin poles. 

Drivers still need to remain in control of the vehicle during automatic parking to account for potential system errors or inaccuracies. 

Self-driving systems

Self-driving systems are currently not available. However, some cars, such as Tesla vehicles, have conditional self-driving systems. These systems are a combination of all ADAS features and features like adaptive cruise control. 

Self-driving systems use sensors and onboard controls to steer the vehicle, accelerate and brake based on sensor feedback. These systems require the driver to remain engaged and ready to take over at all times.

One of the dangers for drivers is when owners of vehicles with self-driving systems rely on them too much. These drivers are liable if they cause an accident even when the self-driving mode is engaged. Additionally, self-driving systems may not work, as was the case with Tesla, which had to recall 2 million vehicles to fix its autopilot system in 2023. 

The Future of In-Car Technology

Technology continues to develop at a rapid pace. A forecast by McKinsey and Company suggests 37 percent of new vehicles sold in 2035 will have autonomous driving capabilities. 

As the technology becomes more widespread, distracted driving and accidents from self-driving cars will likely be dangerous. However, ADAS systems like automatic emergency braking are already standard and could reduce accidents when combined with attentive driving. 

What To Do About Distracted Driving Accidents

Distracted driving crashes due to smartphone use and driver over-reliance on ADAS or self-driving systems are common. If you are involved in such an incident on the road, you need to take specific steps:

• After the incident, move to a safe place, check yourself for injuries, call law enforcement and get medical help. 
• Collect as much information as possible from the scene if it is safe to do so. 
• Get a medical checkup even if it doesn’t seem like you need to. Sometimes, injuries won’t be evident until much later after the accident. 
• Contact an experienced car accident lawyer before talking to an insurance company or negotiating with other drivers. 

If you’re the victim of a distracted driving accident, it’s important to take the right steps in the aftermath of a crash:

• Don’t apologize to the other driver, as that could be viewed as an admission of guilt, when in truth, they were at fault. 
• Get a copy of the police report. It will contain important details about the crash. 
• Get statements from witnesses to the crash. They may be able to help you prove the other driver was distracted and at fault.
• Make sure the other driver is not able to plea their distracted driving ticket down to a lesser infraction. This involves speaking with the prosecutor who will be trying the other driver’s case in court and letting them know about your injuries. 
• Find out if the other driver pleads guilty to any of the distracted driving charges. You’ll be able to use this information when seeking compensation for damages.

It’s essential to speak with a personal injury attorney to take the right steps after a distracted driving accident. They’ll be able to take care of things like obtaining the police report, getting statements from witnesses, speaking with the criminal prosecutor and obtaining certificates of disposition related to the other driver’s court case. A good lawyer can negotiate on your behalf and help you build a case assigning liability to the driver whose distraction or mistakes caused your incident.