Video: Best and Worst Vehicle Safety Systems

Here's one feature, we think, is worth punning up the extra cash for and another feature we haven't seen quite as much benefit from it. The feature that's unquestionably worth the money is, forward collision warning with automatic emergency braking. These systems use cameras and other sensors to scan the road in front of you for objects you're rapidly closing in on. They can alert you with chimes or vibrations, and if you don't do anything, they can hit the brakes to avoid a collision or at least lessen it. In an age of distracted driving, this is crucial. The National Transportation Safety Board reports that between 2012 and 2014, almost half of two car collisions were rear-enders, and so features like this can reduce them. At the other end, our lane departure mitigation systems. In our experience, these systems exhibit a lot of inconsistencies, depending on light and water conditions, and that assumes proper lane markings in the first place. Many of them now employ assistive steering or brakes to keep you in your lane. But short of true lane centering steering systems, these can be inconsistent. Most of them time out in a few seconds if you don't touch the wheel, and their reactions range from almost nothing to sudden unexpected jerking. We understand why these features work only briefly, but we question the logic behind any active safety system that only works part of the time, regardless of why. (upbeat music)