Large numbers of people who own vehicles with crash-avoidance technology report problems with it after repairs.

The finding, from an Insurance Institute for Highway Safety poll of more than 3,000 vehicle owners, sheds light on functioning of vehicles with front crash prevention, blind-spot detection or rear-view or other visibility-enhancing cameras.

Most respondents’ vehicles hadn’t required repairs, but once repairs were made, a significant number experienced issues with the crash-avoidance technologies.

About half of surveyed vehicle owners who’d had at least one of such systems repaired said they had problems with the technologies afterward, the IIHS said in a press release.      

“Many had issues with the technology afterward, and some said they had to have the same feature repaired more than once,” said IIHS Senior Research Scientist Alexandra Mueller.

Most survey respondents, though, said they’d buy a vehicle equipped with such technology again.

IIHS has found in separate research that crash-avoidance technology substantially decrease the kinds of accidents it was designed to prevent. It says automatic emergency braking, for one, cuts rear-end crashes reported to police by 50%.

Post-repair problems were much more common in features repaired because of crash damage or in connection with a windshield replacement. IIHS said windshield repairs often require calibration of sensors and cameras, leading it to conclude that the high post-repair problems point to repairers struggling with calibration.

“These technologies have been proven to reduce crashes and related injuries,” Mueller said. “Our goal is that they continue to deliver those benefits after repairs and for owners to be confident that they’re working properly.”

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