The evolution of passenger safety in cars has come a long way since the turn of the century. From seatbelts making their debut in 1959 with Volvo’s three-point rendition to ABS (a technology derived from aircraft) making its debut in cars in 1966, the incremental updates seem to have redefined the way we look at safety in cars. With airbags coming into the picture in 1973 to passive safety features like tyre pressure monitoring systems coming out in 1986, each decade has had something new and meaningful to offer.

At the forefront of safety innovation, now stands a new technology called ADAS, which promises to not only make driving easier and safer but also eliminate it in the near future. But is it just another gimmick for influencers to make viral reels about or is it as incremental as the invention of airbags and seat belts? Let’s take a closer look.

What Is It?

ADAS stands for Advanced Driver Assistance Systems. At its core, it uses a combination of safety devices to mitigate and eventually, eliminate human error. Unlike most safety features, the focus here is on preventing a collision, by either blaring warning signs or taking control of the vehicle completely.

How Does It Work?

Over the years, the way to implement the technology has become pretty standard across manufacturers. The most common implementation includes a cluster of cameras, radars, LIDARs (Light Detection and Ranging), and ultrasonic sensors to help the car form a complete image of its surroundings. This information is then processed and relayed to the car’s brain or the Electronic Control Unit (ECU), which, in turn, instructs various parts of the car to take necessary and timely actions to adjust the vehicle’s movements and motion.

Most ADAS-equipped cars do this via features such as pedestrian detection/avoidance, lane departure warning/correction, traffic sign recognition, automatic emergency braking, and blind spot detection. Some ultra-luxury vehicles are capable of taking this a notch further with electronic aids like automatic headlight dimming, driver drowsiness detection, rear and front cross-traffic alert, and, in rare cases, automatic valet parking.

Different Levels of ADAS

However, not every ADAS-equipped vehicle gets this whole assortment of safety tech, and here’s what each level offers:

Level 0: No Automation

As the name suggests, cars with Level 0 ADAS have no automated safety features. These cars may seem like they’re from the past but they do get all the basic safety tech such as seatbelts, airbags, and ABS. But just because they don’t have ADAS, doesn’t mean they’re unsafe. Case in point – the homegrown Tata Nexon is a perfect example of the same. Despite not featuring any level of ADAS, its 5-star rating in crash tests conducted by Global NCAP reaffirm the same.

Level 1: Driver Assistance

Level 1 allows for driver assistance but limits it to one specific task at a time. This mostly consists of cruise control or lane departure warning. The former is a system which controls the speed of the car by adjusting the throttle position, while the latter flashes warning signs or even vibrates the steering if the car abruptly moves from its lane. On the road, Volvos and Merc cars offer a more refined experience compared to Indian manufacturers, but that should be contributed to the years of head start they’ve had in the industry.

Level 2: Partial Automation

Level 2 takes the basics up a notch but with some caveats. In this case, a vehicle may have adaptive cruise control and lane-keeping assistance working in tandem, but the majority of the control still lies with the driver. The main difference between level 2 and level 1 can be summed up with the usability of cruise control. On a non-ADAS-equipped car, cruise control can only maintain the speed set by the driver. However, adaptive cruise control uses an array of sensors to measure and observe the distance and speed of the car in front to automatically control the throttle or apply brakes, as required. All cars in India with ADAS max out at level 2.

However, when it comes to day-to-day use, the technology seems to work against you.

For ADAS to work, the road conditions are required to be in near-perfect conditions, which is a far cry from the infrastructure we have in India. In our experience, we’ve preferred to turn off the feature completely. This sentiment is sadly shared by industry experts as well, with a fellow auto journalist mentioning how ADAS became a safety hazard at a point.

One of the incidents he recalled was with a certain German limousine, which detected the change of movement of a pedestrian on the sidewalk, mistaking it as a possible on-road collision and applying the brakes abruptly in moving traffic. Similarly, a premium ADAS-equipped SUV braked in the middle of the road on a turn, mistaking the car in front to be stopping, when it was slowing down instead.

Level 3: Conditional Automation

As the name suggests, this level allows the driver to partially disengage from actively monitoring the road in extremely specific conditions. However, you do get the added benefit of features like traffic jam assist, where the vehicle can accelerate, brake, and steer in crawling traffic. India doesn’t have any cars equipped with Level 3 ADAS or above and understandably so. The thought of nicking off an aspiring MotoGP rider in crawling traffic while the car steers itself out of the jam should give every driver nightmares.

Level 4: High Automation

Here, the vehicle can operate autonomously but within specific areas and roadways, without any driver intervention. This may include specially mapped-out sections like popular highways. There aren’t many levels 4 cars in the market, with a few exceptions including the 2023 Mercedes S-Class and the EQS. Tesla has rolled out a level 4 update on its models, however, the real-time feedback for the same has been a mixed bag so far.

Level 5: Full Automation

The highest level of automation is also the most dystopian. At level 5, the vehicle can perform any driving task without the need for human input. In theory, cars with level 5 automation may not even need a driver’s cabin or a steering wheel.

At its core and in theory, ADAS can not only be a life-saving technology but life-altering as well. While most Indian carmakers are still in the nascent stages of their development, there’s an opportunity to tinker with it to be suitable for Indian roads. Add in the leap-frogging capabilities AI seems to offer in terms of learning user behaviour, suggesting that an I, Robot-like future with self-driving cars may not be limited to the realm of science fiction.