Nearly a quarter of WA drivers are hitting mute on ‘annoying’ car safety technology, AAMI survey reveals

Silence over safety. That’s the surprising choice of West Australian drivers who are switching off their car safety features — such as lane assist technology — because they are too annoying. A new survey reveals that nearly a quarter of WA drivers — or 23 per cent — admitted they had turned off or dialled down their car’s safety features, with most (72 per cent) saying noises and lights are distracting in AAMI’s survey of Australian motorists. A fifth of drivers claimed they did not need it when driving, and 10 per cent said they did not trust the technology. In another blow to the State’s record on merging, the most common device shut down was lane-departure warning or assist technologies — with more than half saying they had hit mute. The technology differs, but ranges from alerts when a car is detected in the next lane while indicating, to corrective actions to maintain a vehicle in the centre of the road. But we are less confident parking, with just four per cent turning off assistance in getting between the white lines in a bay. Almost two thirds accepted the features were making Australian drivers safer. Insurer AAMI’s motor prevention manager Mary Kennedy said the car safety features were not just gadgets. “They’re designed to help protect us and make our roads safer. We should be embracing these features, not turning them off,” she said. “Many of the safety features that drivers are turning off — like collision warning and automatic emergency braking — are really effective at preventing (nose-to-tail) crashes, along with many others including reversing into another vehicle or object such as a trolley or bollard. “Drivers should understand and use these safety features to enhance their own awareness, reduce the risk of human error, and avoid getting into an accident in the first place.” Motor Trade Association WA general manager membership and industry engagement Graham Cawley said he had heard of cases where drivers had returned the cars to dealerships to have safety features switched off. “It’s commonly reported and known that drivers are actively turning off some of the safety features in vehicles because they can be a little bit intrusive, particularly lane keeper to be an obvious one,” he said. “We’ve even had some consumers take vehicles back to the manufacturers or the dealer representatives complaining that the vehicle is pulling to one side, thinking there’s something wrong with the steering, but it’s actually just that ‘lane-keep’ function. “A lot of vehicle drivers will keep to one side of the lane without even realising it, and predominantly that’s away from the car that may be next to them or coming in the opposite direction.” Mr Cawley said drivers should keep the safety features on because of the risk of other distractions. Osborne Park Subaru sales consultant Emma Western said customers had spoken to her about other vehicles having distracting safety warnings. “We do get a lot of people that are looking at other manufacturers that do find that some of them are overdoing it with (safety features), and it is frustrating, annoying,” she said. “A lot of people complain about things being too much, and it makes the car less safe because they’re turning all the features off. “ANCAP (Australasian New Car Assessment Program) are going to start deducting safety points for the things if they’re too intrusive, so it is going to start actually making the cars less safe because of it.” The survey comes as AAMI releases data from crash claims over the 12 months to February, revealing the most common details of our poor driving. Rear-endings remained the State’s most common accident, with nearly a third of claims relating to “nose to tail” crashes, with collisions with stationary objects coming in second, at 27 per cent of claims. A fifth of claims related to damage while the car was parked. Men were the worse driver by gender, making 58 per cent of claims, compared to 42 per cent from women. Drivers aged over 65 claimed the most, making up 17 per cent of insurance applications, compared to just six per cent of drivers under 24. Friday was the worst day of the week for crashes, while during the middle of the day proved the most common time for accidents.