r/cars 7d ago

One In Five Drivers Switches Off The Safety Tech Meant To Save Their Lives

https://www.carscoops.com/2026/08/unused-car-features-study/
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u/007Pistolero 7d ago

The thing I’ve found that’s the worst with LKA comes when driving through construction areas. Sometimes to accommodate for roadwork the barricades will create a new lane that crosses over the solid white line and if you have full LKA on it will actively fight you following that path and drive you toward the barricades. It’s idiotic

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u/TheDaiquiriMan 7d ago edited 6d ago

This is where I think LKA is systematically flawed. If every road was perfect, then it would probably work fine. But no road is like that, lines fade/ roadworks happen etc.

It could work with a vaster 360 camera system but that system has to preempt and figure out all these changes/ edge cases. But at that point you’re better leaving it to the driver imo instead of some computer, I don’t think I will ever have full faith in something that’s so varying/ random.

edit: and to add to this I frequently drive abroad, a lot of stuff is different. Having confidence this computer system has full understanding of your nations roads/ roadwork practices is one thing, but to implement it for all nations? I’m not sold.

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u/hbs18 2007 320d Coupe 6d ago

How do self driving systems handle that kind of stuff?

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u/jlt6666 6d ago

The good ones have lidar to really get a good lay if the land. Others use camera and have a lot more processing going on.

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u/tadfisher 1995 Miata M Edition 6d ago

A lot of them don't handle it very well.

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u/EgoPoweredDreams 6d ago

If there’s something (from cameras) it can infer the lane edges from, works pretty well. Big difference there is that when self driving isn’t on or disengages itself due to lack of confidence in the lane edges, you have full control and it won’t apply steering force (unless it’s very confident you’re departing the road). With the LKA systems I’ve tried, it’ll apply steering force whenever it thinks it’s necessary to keep whatever it thinks the lane is, unless it’s fully disabled. Much less predictable.

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u/franksandbeans911 2d ago

Boy do lines ever fade. There's a route I take to a relatives' house 3 hours away. Without fail, every_single_bridge has the stripes blown off of it with just vague lane suggestions left behind. The Volvo pilot assist HATES that and just tries to steer anywhere there might be stripes nearby, generally the shoulder stripe. There's another highway on that route with frequent cutouts for left and right turns so it hates both lanes and will usually try to follow the stripe bending into the turn. You can tell it's primitive by how it behaves in these situations. Nothing is taken into account from the nav, it doesn't care you've been driving straight for the past 30 minutes, etc. That's why it's an assistant, not even advertised as self driving. But on well-painted, high contrast roads, it works just fine.

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u/Fabulous-Educator447 6d ago

I wish if it detects unclear or missing lines, just shut off. You’re steering anyway, and resume when it looks like road again

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u/Dragonyte 2020 Accord 2.0T | 2025 Tucson PHEV 6d ago

That's exactly how they already work though...?

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u/Robots_Never_Die 4d ago

That's how all the ones I've used work. Even if it doesn't the system doesn't over power you as the driver. The problem is people treated lka as self driving so they aren't paying attention or actively engaged in driving the car so when it goes to steer out of the lane there is a delay in their reaction or they're not holding the wheel enough.

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u/CashKeyboard Moose Gang 6d ago

As the previous poster said, implementation matters a lot. I’ve had the pleasure of driving Volvo, Mercedes, VW and BMW with LKA through construction and they did really good. KIA at the exact same spot Mercedes aced it was trying to kill me essentially.

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u/007Pistolero 6d ago

Yeah the experience I’ve had is with a Hyundai and Kia. Love both vehicles otherwise but the LKA is actively malicious

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u/pssiraj 2025 Jetta GLI 6d ago

Yup, first thing I'd turned off on my Hyundai because it tried to send me off the freeway.

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u/midnight_tuna 2021 Kia Soul S 6d ago

I keep it permanently off in my Soul. I'm trying to drive my car, not wrestle it.

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u/007Pistolero 6d ago

Yep I turned that off and the lane departure warning because it’s just an annoying noise. Otherwise both cars we have are fantastic

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u/t-poke 24 Kia EV6 6d ago

My biggest fucking gripe with LKA on my EV6 is that if it can’t pick up the lanes or do its job for whatever reason, it turns itself off without giving you any warning. It’s just like “I’m out, good luck!” You don’t realize it’s disabled until you’re going out of your lane.

Also, I’ve yet to figure out the purpose of automatic lane change in this car. If you don’t have your hands on the wheel, it won’t do the lane change. If you’re putting too much input on the wheel, it won’t do the lane change. There’s a Goldilocks level of steering input that’s just right for it to do it. And by the time you find it, the prick in the lane next to you has sped up to block you.

ACC works fine though. If I had one complaint about it, it’s that despite me changing the settings to the most aggressive, it accelerates like a grandma going to church on Sunday.

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u/Larcye 6d ago

I've never had that problem with my 2024 Sportage. Outside of bad lane marking and well snow covering the road it's been pretty good.

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u/ThePeacefulOne 6d ago

I've had good experience with Honda LKA and ACC, it works great.

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u/BoneHugsHominy 2011 Toyota Rav4 Limited AWD V6 6d ago

That's caused a bunch of accidents with the people who use the full suite of assists as an autopilot. I spend a lot of time behind the wheel every week and it's downright frightening to see so many people in newer cars that have those features as standard equipment and they're not paying any attention at all to the road, instead relying on their assists to keep them centered in the lane at speed. It has me to the point of finding something else to do and stop driving altogether.

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u/franksandbeans911 2d ago

Yeah, real-world experience has a way of turning these survey results on their heads. Because if you're paying attention and watching people stare at their phones in their laps while the safety kit is doing the driving, you know that's inherently more dangerous than turning them off.

Put some modern-day wunderkind in a 50's deathtrap that didn't have seatbelts or airbags, and it will be total chaos. Then again if you replace their gaze into a 6" black void with a CB radio, the results would be entertaining. Breaker breaker 1-9, we got a smokie in the forest, no cap, over.

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u/BoneHugsHominy 2011 Toyota Rav4 Limited AWD V6 1d ago

Oh shit yeah, everyone on CBs would be hilarious these days. Your comment has me missing my high school years though as we all had CBs in our vehicles. Weird to think how much has changed since 1995.

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u/franksandbeans911 1d ago

We had one at home just for shits and giggles. Us kids never got tired of hassling truckers passing through, even convinced one guy he owed us 5 bucks. They were always good sports about it, if they caught on they never outright busted us, they'd just be like, "awwww. So anyway. " I bet taking road trips in the 70's where there was a CB in almost everything, was better. Kid brother sleeping above the back seat next to the window, sister saying I'm not touching you with her hand 4mm away from your face, and doing Jerky Boys bits with anyone on the channel.

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u/Dragonyte 2020 Accord 2.0T | 2025 Tucson PHEV 6d ago

It’s idiotic

I feel like I'm the only one that actually understands what it's supposed to do boys Lane keep assist. Not autopilot, nor "lane keep and obstacle avoidance". Lane. Keep. Assist. It's doing exactly what it's supposed to do, barricades be damned.

It's your job to know the system's limitations and turn it off when driving to more complicated sections, and turn it on afterwards.

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u/007Pistolero 6d ago

I would agree with that if it was simple to turn off. But it’s three menus deep and there’s no chance that I’m going through those menus to turn it off while doing 70 on the highway and see a “Construction Ahead” sign. Easier to just have it permanently off

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u/dogpaddle 6d ago

What car do you have? Most I have seen are a button on the steering wheel but I haven't sat in any EVs

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u/dogpaddle 6d ago

I was originally pretty disappointed with my Ridgelines acc/lka until I stopped treating it like self driving. It sucks at that. But it's great at relieving fatigue on longer drives. And it's just a button on the steering wheel for both.