Blind-Spot Monitoring isn’t Flawless: AAA

Advanced safety features on our vehicles help reduce potential accidents, but they aren’t perfect.

“Some blind-spot monitoring systems we tested had a short detection range, which meant that a vehicle was already in the blind spot before the alert came on,” said Megan McKernan, engineering manager of the Automobile Club of Southern California. “The lane-departure warning system on several vehicles experienced false-positive and miss-detections, which resulted in an inconsistent driver warning.”

According to a recent study conducted by AAA’s research team, advanced safety technologies such as blind-spot monitoring and lane-departure warning have limitations that drivers should be aware of. The organization’s testing found  scenarios where the systems failed to perform as expected, with AAA cautioning to not rely solely on those technologies to avoid collisions.

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AAA found that blind-spot monitoring systems struggle to detect fast-moving vehicles that are quickly approaching in an adjacent lane. In additional testing, AAA determined that blind-spot monitors were less sensitive to motorcycles and flashed an alert 26 percent later than traditional passenger vehicles.

As for lane-departure warning systems, AAA found limitations in their detection on worn road lines or in construction zones and intersections. The organization also mentioned that its engineers found discrepancy in performance between various systems from automakers, though it didn’t go into detail about which systems performed better than others. The test vehicles used included an Acura RLX, Cadillac Escalade and Mercedes-Benz CLS-Class.