Driver assistance systems finding their way into more new vehicles

29 May 2018

People buying new cars today in Germany and Europe are placing more and more value on having electronic assistants on board, according to equipment supplier Bosch.

According to research the German company carried out from new registration statistics for 2016, parking and lane assist systems, as well as emergency braking systems are becoming increasingly popular.

62% of new passenger cars registered in Germany in 2016 were equipped with some parking assistance system, ranging from parking beepers to automatic parking assistants. Second place in the popularity scale was taken by automatic emergency braking systems that warn drivers or bring the car to a halt in an emergency. More than one in every three new cars registered in 2016 (38%) can help drivers to avoid accidents in this way. For over a quarter of these vehicles, an emergency braking system is even part of the car’s standard fittings.

Behind in third place was driver drowsiness detection, fitted in 37% of all new passenger cars in 2016. However, the largest growth was recorded for lane assist systems. Compared with the previous year, there were twice as many of these onboard new cars in 2016. Another interesting development was in relation to adaptive cruise control (ACC). Although barely fitted in 4% of newly registered cars in Germany in 2013, in 2016, this function was installed in nearly one in five new cars (19%).

′There is a clear trend: it will soon be as natural to have cars fitted with driver assistance systems as it is with radio and ESP,’ says Bosch board of management member Dirk Hoheisel, referring to the results.

Parking assistance systems, emergency braking systems, and lane assist systems are also the most popular driver assistance systems in the UK, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France in that order. Parking assistance systems are even more widespread in France than they are in Germany: 67% of the new passenger cars registered there in 2016 support their drivers while they park. Parking assistance systems are now included in the standard equipment of a vast majority of vehicles: at 63% of new cars, France has the highest proportion.

In Belgium and the Netherlands, 39% of new cars have an automatic emergency braking system, the highest proportion in Europe. Italy and Russia, which, alongside France, were included in the Bosch analysis for the first time, still have room to improve when it comes to driver assistance systems. However, 18% of new passenger cars registered in Italy in 2016 still had a lane assist system on board, and in Russia, they are getting the ball rolling with an installation rate of 6%.

The news comes as the European Union announces that fatal accidents on roads in the continent have reduced during 2017. This can be attributed in part to the increase in safety technology in vehicles.