While we’re enthusiastic about the potentials of technology, we have to temper that enthusiasm with a look at the current vehicle landscape in the United States. ADAS technologies only became standard on new vehicles in recent years, and right now the average passenger vehicle on American roadways is about 13 years old, up from about nine years old a quarter-century ago. This means people are holding onto their older, non-ADAS-equipped cars for longer. Affordability concerns are one reason Americans may be reluctant to part with their older models: Last year, Kelley Blue Book reported that the average price of a new car had surpassed $50,000. That doesn’t mean you can’t find affordable cars with high safety ratings (just check out this list from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and Consumer Reports of top-rated vehicles that can typically be found used for under $20,000). But it does mean that it will be quite some time until the majority of vehicles on the road at any given place will have blind spot protection, lane centering assistance, driver monitoring systems, and other technologies that you can learn more about here at My Car Does What.

In April 2024, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) finalized a new Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard that will require automatic emergency braking (AEB), including pedestrian AEB, as standard on all passenger cars and light trucks by September 2029. This standard is estimated to be able to save 360 lives a year and prevent over 24,000 injuries. Not long ago, this would have seemed like science fiction, but now, it will be completely normal for a car to stop itself before it can crash into a pedestrian. But because it will take several decades for every vehicle on the road to be from model year 2029 or later, we can’t become complacent and assume the cars will do all the work for us.

Learn what your vehicle’s features can and cannot do, but don’t assume other drivers on the road have car that can do likewise. For the foreseeable future, the human behind the wheel is still the most important feature of any vehicle.

The post The State of ADAS Today first appeared on My Car Does What.

Now more than ever, roadway users of all modes need to be armed with the latest research, resources and messaging around what works to keep us safe. According to NSC estimates, almost 38,000 people lost their lives in motor vehicle incidents in 2025. Existing advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) technologies can save thousands of lives each year, up to a quarter-million people over thirty years. We will only realize the full safety benefits of vehicle design if we know what features exist, their limits, how they intersect with one another and other vehicles, and the responsibility we have as roadway users to contribute to a safer environment.

If you are new to My Car Does What or haven’t visited in a while, we have a ton of information available to get you started. You can dig in to learn more about current vehicle safety technologies, what’s available in your vehicle and what isn’t. Some things to check out include:

• An organized overview of the safety features available in your specific vehicle type
• Short, simple explanations of what these different technologies can (and can’t) do
• A robust video library to help drive this information home

With our new refresh, we’re diving into new and timely topics, developing additional resources, and partnering with our network of experts to make sure the latest updates are readily available. Refresh your memory on the terminology you will see used here by reviewing Clearing the Confusion.

We hope you will continue to poke around on the website and let us know what you find most engaging. Have a question or a topic you think is worth diving into? Reach out!

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