Coddle Models

It’s hard to fall asleep at the wheel in broad daylight. But I had to play possum if I wanted to witness firsthand how the 2014 Acura RLX is supposed to rescue careless drivers. Like an increasing number of other vehicles on North American roads, the top-of-the-line RLX comes with a so-called lane-keeping aid. Should my eyelids crash and my car start to drift–or should I cross the line without flicking my blinker–the car is designed to intervene. So what does it feel like when your machine takes over?

During a weekend test drive in Virginia on Interstate 66, I turned on the cruise control and let my hands droop. The wheel tensed as the sedan sidled toward the fast lane. Warnings began to flash, and when I failed to respond, the RLX stepped in. A camera scanning the road from behind the rearview mirror picked out the lane markings, and using electric power steering, the machine politely guided me back to the center of my lane, without so much as a pinky’s input. The correction was easy to override, but letting it happen felt both eerie and reassuring, as if I were a bowling ball gliding off bumpers at a kids’ birthday party.

Driverless cars are the future. In the present, manufacturers are racing to coddle and protect drivers with the latest and greatest semiautonomous technology. Mashing data from radars, cameras and ultrasonic sensors, these driver-assist features can steer for us, park for us, brake for us and even let us know if we’re about to hit a moose. For years, these contraptions were a realistic option only for big spenders. Today they’re trickling down to more affordable models–which means more competition, more innovation and more drivers getting accustomed to cars designed to pick up their slack.

The $61,000 RLX also has systems that I didn’t have the grit to try, like collision-mitigation braking. If the car senses that I’m about to hit something and I don’t appear to be doing much about it, the vehicle will brake itself. At lower speeds, auto-braking systems can avoid a crash; at higher speeds, they will just minimize the damage. The current race among manufacturers is to detect the widest array of potential victims. For instance, while Ford plans to auto-brake for other cars in the U.S. by 2015, Volvo is debuting cyclist detection on its 2014 models. Brands priced upwards of $50,000 already promise to mitigate run-ins with other vehicles, bikes, big animals and the child who runs into the street after a ball.

U.S. safety officials, who may soon rule that all new cars be outfitted with collision-mitigation braking, would likely have applauded my hesitation. Road watchdogs and manufacturers are quick to emphasize that these systems are safety nets, not an excuse to start watching Grumpy Cat videos during our commutes. “They’re driver support,” says David Strickland, head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, emphasizing that it’s the people who are in charge. “Their responsibility is still to drive, both hands on the wheel, both eyes on the road.” Once the lane-keeping aid kicked in during my ride, the RLX continued to steer itself–even around soft corners–for about 10 seconds. Then an alarm sounded, telling me to get my mitts on the wheel, and the system shut off.

Ford may be trailing the luxury brands in auto-braking, but the company broke a class ceiling when it offered a big driver-assist package with the 2013 Fusion, priced at around $30,000. Randy Visintainer, Ford’s director of research, says the company uses off-the-shelf sensors and leverages supplier relationships to “democratize the technology.” The bundle includes a lane-keeping aid and adaptive cruise control, which uses radar sensors to maintain a set distance from the car ahead rather than a set speed.

Adaptive cruise control and lane keepers are marketed as features that make driving less of a hassle, though both also have the potential to minimize crashes. The less sexy version of a lane-keeping aid is a lane-departure warning, an alert without any Herbie-like maneuvers that’s debuting on models like the 2014 Chevy Impala. Market-research firm Just-Auto estimates that 6% of new cars in North America will have some form of lane assistance this year; that will rocket to nearly 40% within a decade. Adaptive cruise control has a similar penetration now, and analysts estimate about 15% of cars will offer it by 2022. As these tools become more common, Just-Auto analyst Matthew Beecham points out, U.S. insurance companies may start offering related discounts–as insurers do in Europe.

If you’re willing to pay more, you can do even less. GM plans to debut a system dubbed Super Cruise on Cadillacs before 2020, which will allow drivers to take their hands off the wheel in certain highway conditions. The 2014 RLX, like other high-end models coming out, offers adaptive cruise control that will bring the car to a full stop and then start it again–meaning the car can essentially manage its own gassing and braking in city traffic or traffic jams. The 2014 Mercedes-Benz S-Class, priced north of $90,000, will have stereo cameras compiling 3-D images of the road, so the suspension can predictively adjust for irregularities on the surface. Among other things, this means we may one day need bigger speed bumps.

Even with the most advanced systems, there are blind spots. Bad weather, faded lane markings and even dirt can muck with the sensors required for driver-assist functions. Researchers are still debating how much safer these systems make the roads–and whether such hand-holding might actually debilitate drivers, leaving them more distractible and less capable. “There’s some concern that there might be degradation of skill,” says Sue Chrysler, driving-research director at the University of Iowa. Anyone who has ever taught a new driver, she says, knows that pushing buttons is a poor substitute for learning how to physically handle a car.

I experienced the pitfalls of button reliance during my test drive. The RLX braked for me at an intersection. But when the light turned green, nothing happened. Busy enjoying my ride, I forgot I had to re-engage the cruise control after a complete stop. Honking ensued, and I reverted to the sure thing: regular driving. It was a clear reminder that however futuristic these systems may feel, you still can’t drive in your sleep.