AAA Study Says Vehicles with Driver-Assisted Tech Cost More to Repair

Motorists like new convenience and safety features but a new study from AAA says that new high-tech safety features which are offered as standard features on modern vehicles can end up costing double when it comes to even minor repairs like a fender bender.

The study said that vehicles having advanced driver assistance features (ADAS), like automatic emergency braking, blind spot monitoring and lane departure warning come with sensors which are normally installed behind windshields, bumpers and door mirrors can add up to thousands of dollars in repairs and when ADAS technology is damaged, the cost to replace them can be quite high.

Michelle Donati, spokeswoman for AAA Alaska said that advanced safety systems are a lot more common now and even base models now have them as standard features. Hence, drivers need to understand the kind of technological features their vehicles have, how they perform and how much it could cost to repair if any of these systems get damaged.

AAA conducted tests which indicate that though ADAS offers many safety benefits, it is inevitable that such systems suffer damage over years of use.

The AAA study found that even a minor front or rear collision on a car having ADAS can be as high as USD 5,300, this is almost two and a half times the amount needed for a vehicle that does not have such systems.

An example is windshield damage, which is especially common with more than 14.5 million replacements annually. Replacing a windshield on a vehicle equipped with a camera behind the glass typically costs $1,500, which can be as much as three times the amount to replace the windshield on a car without the technology. Many safety systems rely on cameras that need recalibration when the glass is replaced, which adds to the cost.

In the case of a regular car, damage to the windshield results only in damage to the appearance of the car. In the case of a vehicle with ADAS, it affects the camera or the sensors and hence only qualified repair personnel can fix the damage.

Many factors such as vehicle make and model, the type and location of the sensor and where the work is performed can affect ADAS repair costs. The entire system may need to be restored and recalibrated and then the bill will be really steep as this kind of work needs special training and tools.