From safety aid to safety risk: new tech elicits unintended consequences

The spread of advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) into mainstream vehicles is impacting driver behaviour, but not always as it's expected. These new technologies, designed to make driving safer and less demanding, carry with them some unintended consequences. The Advanced Vehicle Technology (AVT) Consortium, set up by a group of companies in October 2015, studies driver behaviour and associated safety risks related to increasingly automated driving technology.

"Semi-autonomous technologies are coming to the mass market very quickly," Jeff Blecher, Senior Vice President of strategy at Agero, told Automotive World. Agero is one of the consortium's founding partners, along with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Touchstone Evaluations, Delphi, Liberty Mutual Insurance, Jaguar Land Rover, Toyota and Autoliv. More participants are expected to join in time. "The research at the AVT Consortium is focussed around understanding the interaction between technology and human behaviour," explained Blecher.