The hidden costs of car safety tech

Innovative Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) fitted into the latest vehicles are important safety aids, but they are adding significantly to the cost of car repair bills, according to industry expert, What Car?.

ADAS technologies use cameras and radar sensors to help to mitigate the risk of a collision and improve driver safety. They include automatic emergency braking (AEB), lane keeping assistance, blind spot warning systems and speed limiting devices.

The sensors behind these systems prove expensive to replace and are often housed in vulnerable areas of the car, such as behind bumpers and windscreens.

That means they are causing a steep increase in the cost of replacing these traditionally cheaper parts, sometimes by as much as 123 per cent.

According to the Association of British Insurers (ABI), the average cost of a car repair bill in the UK has risen by 32 per cent over the past three years.

With ADAS technology currently fitted to around per cent of vehicles on UK and Ireland roads and expected to rise to around 40 per cent by 2020, that cost looks set to increase even further.
If damaged sensors and other ADAS components are not repaired, they could render on-board safety systems, like lane departure warnings, useless and compromise the safety of the driver and passengers.

There are a number of vehicles on sale that don’t have ADAS sensors in their bumpers, making them cheaper to repair after a minor prang.

The Honda CR-V and Volkswagen Golf, for example, have theirs behind the bonnet badge, and the Nissan X-Trail, Nissan Pulsar, Mini Countryman, Mini Hatch and Subaru XV and Impreza models have theirs in a unit behind the windscreen.