Many car accidents in Pittsburgh are caused by drivers who are drowsy, fatigued or inattentive. A technology relatively new for the commercial market is now becoming more common among new vehicles and may prevent fatigued drivers from traveling outside their lanes. But, the new technology may also create additional driving risks.

In the automobile industry the technology is referred to as a lane-keeping system and multiple car companies are installing the technology on new models. One such car company is Ford and its lane-keeping system is an option for two of its 2013 models.

Ford's lane-keeping technology uses a camera mounted to a car's rear-view mirror to analyze the driving path of the vehicle. The camera measures the lane markings of the road to determine whether the driver of the vehicle drifts outside of the markings. If a turn signal is not used, the system assumes the movement outside of the lane is not purposeful and sends a vibration to the steering wheel to warn the driver. If the driver does not respond to the warning, the system will turn the car back to the center of the lane by engaging the power steering.

The system if flawless would probably help reduce many car accidents in Pennsylvania, but current lane-keeping systems are not yet perfect. Current systems are not able to recognize lane markings in all circumstances and conditions like through windy roads or heavy precipitation.

Even if the systems were perfect the director of the Center for Automotive Research at Stanford believes such automatic systems would create a risk accommodation problem. A risk accommodation problem is when drivers engage in riskier behavior after the safety of a vehicle is improved. If the systems become reliable enough to be commonplace, drivers may overly rely on the systems to the point where they become passive passengers. And if an accident occurs, liability must still be assessed. Will it be assessed to the driver or the system?

Source: The New York Times, "Trying to nudge drowsy drivers," Randall STross, Jan. 21, 2012