Advanced safety technology is developing at a breakneck speed; safety features that seemed out of reach even five years ago are now becoming regular staples of the latest car models. But what is all this new technology doing our behaviour behind the wheel?
A new survey by State Farm has suggested that the impact that cars with advanced safety technology have on their drivers is not entirely positive. In fact, the safer the technology, the more likely drivers seem to be to engage in dangerous behaviour.
"A new survey... found that drivers with cars equipped with adaptive cruise control or lane keeping assistance said they were almost twice as likely to use video chat while behind the wheel compared to those whose cars didn't have this advanced technology."
This example is one of many. Covering the findings of the survey, CBS News detailed how the availability of safety technology has led to increases in everything from using apps while driving, reading and sending text messages, and drivers taking their eyes off the road for several seconds.
Advanced safety technology can do a lot of things for us, making the driving experience much safer, but it can't drive for us. Where some people might think that safety technology should take over certain aspects of driving, in reality we should be working with safety technology to achieve the safest journey.
Some of this might come from an inadequate understanding of how far-reaching the safety technology at our fingertips truly is. As mentioned, cars are becoming high-tech very quickly, but what that means for us as drivers might not be coming across as clearly or with as much speed.
For more on the survey and for CBS News' take on what it means, check out the original article.