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Writer's pictureTurbocharged

Group Of Organizations Calls For Less Confusing Names For ADAS Systems

Advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) have become part of the everyday driving experience, with features that can keep your vehicle centered in its lane, detect nearby obstacles, or even prevent a head-on collision. But many automakers have been using fancy names for these systems to set themselves apart from other manufacturers, which can lead to confusion among buyers regarding what these features really do.



In order to reduce the confusion, a small group of organizations has joined forces to announce that these names should be standardized across the board. The effort was first declared by Consumer Reports, but the full list includes AAA, the National Safety Council, J.D. Power, SAE International, and PAVE.



The companies released a list of standardized names that they want automakers to adopt. While almost every company offers a forward collision warning, each has their own way of referring to it, varying from Volkswagen's Front Assist to Mazda's Forward Obstruction Warning. Using uniform names for these features would make the purpose and functionality of these systems more clear, while also helping to convey that ADAS systems are there to help, and are not meant to replace the driver.



Speaking of replacing the driver, many have mistaken hands-free driving functionality as being a full self-driving feature, which can be potentially dangerous. Many incidents like this have been reported with Tesla's Autopilot, and its upcoming Full Self-Driving feature sounds very misleading. Many other automakers are introducing all kinds of marketing terms for their hands-free driving systems, including Ford BlueCruise, Lexus Teammate, and Lincoln ActiveGlide. Creating a standardized name for this feature would make the limits of hands-free driving much more obvious to consumers.


Do you think that all automakers should use uniform names for their ADAS systems?

Images: Cadillac, Honda, Nissan


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