Will a car that can park and brake itself change driver behavior?

It seems to be the season of rate increases for most major insurance companies writing auto insurance. You would think with cars that park themselves and brake themselves, that there would be fewer accidents. Unfortunately, all those safety innovations are being more than offset by driver behavior, which is one thing safety engineers cannot fix. On one hand, technology makes the vehicle safer to operate, but on the other hand it gives the driver more distractions to disengage from paying attention to driving safely.

So what is the necessity of staying connected while driving? Why can’t we put down the phone until we reach our location? What are we teaching our kids when they ride in the car and see our driving behavior?

Recent reports show that millennials are the biggest offenders. If that is the case and there is a direct correlation between distracted driving and traffic accidents, we should see auto insurance rates going up for millennials and increasing less, or going down for drivers over the age of 60 who do not use their phones in their vehicles as much. That makes sense as long as insurance companies collect claims data based on rate class and age of the driver. Most if not all companies do collect the data and weigh current or prior year losses more heavily in their rates. Unfortunately, it takes time for loss data to be totally reflected in rates, but the trend should certainly be there.

What I see while driving, since I am a student of driving behavior having been in auto insurance for more than 45 years, is that many drivers think that an amber light means charge. Have you ever been behind that driver that goes 30 mph in a 35 mph zone, then as the light changes from green to amber, they gun the gas to get through the light, leaving you in their dust?

If we really want to change driving behavior, maybe we should change the amber light — which many ignore — to a blinking red light to better signal a change to stop. Drivers would pay more attention to a blinking red light than they would to an amber light since we are better programmed to stop on a red light.

Unfortunately, that will not help the distracted driver that totally disregards the light or stop sign since they are looking down rather than looking up. The only thing that will help there would be equipping vehicles with a sensor to recognize the color of the traffic light or stop sign and bring the vehicle to a stop. Either that or connect the sensor to a cattle prod in the driver’s seat to alert them to brake. Your thoughts?

This story was originally published March 21, 2017 at 3:01 PM with the headline "Will a car that can park and brake itself change driver behavior?."