Survey finds half of vehicle owners reported problems with crash-avoidance tech after repairs

WASHINGTON — About half of the vehicle owners surveyed by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety said they experienced problems with certain crash-avoidance features after the technology was repaired.

The IIHS on Wednesday said it contacted more than 3,000 owners of vehicles equipped with front-crash prevention, blind-spot detection and rearview cameras or other visibility-enhancing cameras — all crash-avoidance features that have proven safety benefits and are becoming more prevalent across vehicles in the U.S. Of those respondents, 496 reported having a repair done to one of those systems at some point.

“Most of the more than 3,000 owners we contacted said they had never needed to have their crash-avoidance features repaired, but for the minority of owners who did, the problems weren’t always resolved easily,” said Alexandra Mueller, a senior research scientist at IIHS who designed the survey.

“Many had issues with the technology afterward, and some said they had to have the same feature repaired more than once,” Mueller continued. “Still, the vast majority said they would buy a vehicle equipped with the technology again, and most were satisfied with the out-of-pocket cost.”

Of the nearly 500 vehicle owners who reported having repairs done, about 40 percent of the vehicles involved were from the 2019 model year or newer, the survey found.

Issues with crash-avoidance features were “substantially more common” following windshield replacements or repairs involving crash damage, IIHS found. About two-thirds of owners whose repairs involved windshield replacement and nearly three-quarters of owners whose repairs involved crash damage said they had issues with the technology after the repair.

In contrast, fewer than half of those who had repairs done for other reasons faced problems afterward, the survey showed.

Certain repairs such as a windshield replacement can require service technicians to calibrate the cameras and sensors that the features rely on to work properly. About two-thirds of those surveyed by IIHS said calibration was included in the repair.

Those respondents also reported a higher incidence of post-repair problems, suggesting that technicians might be struggling with the calibration process, which can be complicated and require specialized training and equipment, the study showed.

“Calibration software is subject to frequent updates, making it difficult for shops to keep their tools up to date,” IIHS said. “This is further complicated by a lack of standardization of calibration processes.”

IIHS said its researchers are tracking these problems to determine whether they improve over time. It also recommended that manufacturers simplify and standardize the calibration process and ensure repair shops know how to fully restore functionality to affected crash-avoidance features.

“An affordable, centralized database of repair and calibration specifications and instructions from all automakers should be made available to all technicians,” IIHS said.