Bosch Believes Cars Need More Assistance Technologies

Bosch is one of the world's leading third-party automotive equipment suppliers, so it is no surprise to hear it say that cars need more driver assistance technology because it is going to be the company selling much of it. But the company conducted a survey of UK motorists and found that about half of them do not know that some modern assistance technologies even exist, and even fewer of them actually have it. 

Among registered cars in the UK, about 10% have either parking assist or blind spot detection and 6% of cars have adaptive cruise control.

About Half of the drivers surveyed said that assistance systems would not make them any more comfortable or relaxed while driving. Twenty four percent of those surveyed were not aware that emergency brake assist even exist. Of those surveyed, 8% said that they would pay extra for blind spot detection and 9% said they would pay extra for emergency braking assist. 

Still, Bosch estimates that 90% of auto accidents are caused by driver error and generally because people do not have complete situational awareness about what is going on around them. It claims that driver assistance systems will make drivers safer. 

"In order to meet both drivers’ expectations and the UN’s safety targets, it is clear that we need to work to increase fitment of these technologies, through encouraging them both as options on new cars, as well as standard equipment where possible,” said Gerhard Steiger, president of the Bosch Chassis Systems Control.

Whether drivers actually want the systems or not, it seems like more cars in the future will come with more safety technologies.