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March 13, 2021 03:30 am

Drivers Are 24% More Likely To Speed When Using Adaptive Cruise Control

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Back in the mid-'90s, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration evaluated [adaptive cruise control (ACC)], logging 35,000 test miles (56,000 km). [ACC uses forward-looking radar to control the distance to a vehicle in front of it.] The NHTSA found that "ACC is remarkably attractive to most drivers. The research indicates that, because ACC is so pleasing, people tend to utilize it over a broad range of conditions and to adopt tactics that prolong the time span of each continuous engagement." However, the agency's results also suggested "that ACC usage has induced some elevation in the speeds that would otherwise prevail in conventional (i.e., manual and [conventional cruise control]) driving." To test how ACC affected speeding, the IIHS recruited 40 drivers in the Boston area, then gave half of them a 2017 Volvo S90 to use for about four weeks and the other half a 2016 Range Rover Evoque, both of which were equipped with ACC. The vehicles were equipped with a monitoring system that included a video camera facing the main instrument display (to determine when ACC was operating), as well as vehicle speed and location, and the speed limits. IIHS also only recorded data on controlled-access highways. Analyzing the data showed that drivers in both the Volvo and Range Rover were significantly more likely (95 percent) to exceed the posted speed limit when using ACC than not (77 percent), although there were no significant differences between the two groups. However, the absolute differences in speed were not that great. When driving manually, drivers averaged 6.1 mph (9.8 km/h) over the speed limit. When using ACC, this increased to 7 mph (11.2 km/h), or 7.1 mph (11.4 km/h) when using Pilot Assist in the Volvo. Interestingly, drivers sped more on highways with 55 mph and 60 mph speed limits than on 65 mph-limited roads. The IIHS estimates that "[c]ompared with manual driving, the increase in speed associated with ACC/Pilot Assist use was estimated to increase crash risk by 10 percent for fatal crashes, by 4 percent for injury crashes, and by 3 percent for property-damage-only crashes." The IIHS does note that it did not take into account the following distances while using ACC, which drivers can control (in increments of 1 and 5 mph). It also noted that drivers generally drive 5-10 mph (8-16 km/h) faster than the posted limit, and that's easier to accomplish when using ACC than when driving manually.

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