Montreal, Quebec — Nowadays more and more cars are being equipped with driver assistance technologies such as rear-view cameras and vehicle proximity alerts, which are designed to assist the driver in controlling the vehicle and improve safety.
However, a new Léger survey, conducted on behalf of Allstate Canada, revealed that, of the Quebec respondents, only 35 percent claim to understand all the features available on their car and 16 percent said they don’t fully comprehend them.
The Allstate Léger survey also found that 52 percent of all respondents from the national sample say they rarely or never rely on their car’s driver assist features. Among these, 42 percent mentioned they were distracted by the warnings and 56 percent admitted they disabled at least one of them.
According to the survey data, the two main reasons why Quebec respondents are disabling their driver assist features are annoyance (63 percent) and because they don’t trust them (14 percent).
“Vehicles today are equipped with a host of tools to improve safety on the road, but still many people don’t fully understand how to use them, get distracted by them or turn them off, especially on Quebec roads where orange cones in construction zones can cause an overabundance of alarms and warnings,” notes Carmine Venditti, Allstate Agency Manager, Montreal-East area.
Allstate automotive insurance data shows that vehicles equipped with more driver assistance technologies tend to have a lower frequency of claims than vehicles only equipped with a backup camera.
Allstate says drivers should understand the capabilities and limitations of the assistance technologies in their vehicles.
“Being knowledgeable about these assistance technologies allow for a better understanding of their usefulness. As a result, the driver can benefit from better visibility around the vehicle, and make safe decisions, potentially avoiding a collision.”
Allstate is reminding all drivers to drive safely on the road this summer, no matter how far they travel.
The survey was conducted by Léger from May 7 to 9, 2021, among a representative sample of 1,529 Canadians aged 18 and over, able to speak English or French. Of the national sample, 415 respondents were from Quebec. Results were weighted by gender, age, mother tongue, region and education to ensure a representative sample of the Canadian population.
