The automotive industry is filled with news and predictions about the future of self-driving cars. Searching for “autonomous cars” on Google shows up almost twice as many results as “cat playing piano” – quite a feat in itself.

With all of this hype floating around, it is easy to forget that there are already Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) in the market today that take us some way along the journey towards self-driving cars. According to SBD, in 2014 almost 1.5 million vehicles in the USA will be shipped with Autonomous Emergency Braking, Adaptive Cruise Control and/or Lane Departure Warning systems. These three applications form the backbone of the self-driving car, so what can we learn from their deployment so far? A great deal it turns out…

People are already misusing ADAS systems

A commonly accepted principle amongst engineers is that consumers will always find unexpected and creative ways to misuse their products. ADAS systems aren’t immune to this principle, and in fact we’ve already seen various examples of misuse being posted on Youtube. Below is a compilation of some of the worst examples:

You can imagine how top executives at Mercedes-Benz and Nissan reacted when they saw these videos! Systems that were engineered to support drivers as a last resort are being stretched well beyond their original design scope.

So what can be done? Car makers have implemented various solutions to minimize the risk of misuse, including seat sensors and cut-off times for how long a system will work before human intervention is required. But until ADAS systems are closely integrated with driver monitoring solutions, misuse will continue and possibly worsen.

A vast majority of drivers misunderstand how their ADAS systems work

According to surveys conducted by SBD, existing owners of ADAS systems have a significant gap in knowledge about how their systems work. Almost 90% of US respondents in a 2013 survey made mistakes when describing the capabilities of ADAS systems equipped in their cars. Even more worryingly, 69% of owners of vehicles equipped with Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) wrongly believed that their car would automatically bring them to a complete halt during traffic, when in fact their particular systems didn't operate below 30MPH.

Educating an excited new car owner about their in-car technology is always a challenge. But as car makers ramp up the fitment rate of autonomous technologies they will also need to ramp up their efforts to educate drivers on the limitations of those systems. Governments also have a role to play by updating antiquated driving tests and schooling systems.

Without addressing these concerns we risk creating mistrust

As an industry we often focus on the technical and legislative challenges associated with deploying autonomous cars, but fail to address another critical challenge: building trust. It would be a mistake to underestimate the reservations that some drivers will inevitably have towards relinquishing control of their vehicles. Getting these skeptics onboard will require careful planning by car makers during these early days, and an anticipation of areas of misuse, misunderstanding and potential mistrust of autonomous technologies.

We’ve recently published a new report analyzing the future of autonomous cars and the different steps that suppliers and car makers need to take in order to succeed. To find out more click here.