Life saving lane departure tech coming to all new cars

The Federal Government is preparing to make this ground-breaking technology standard in all new cars, but it’s not all good news.

Self-steering automatic features look set to be mandatory in all new cars sold in Australia within the next five years.

Lane keeping systems in new cars have the potential to save thousands of lives by preventing serious smashes such as head-on collisions from occurring, though they could make cars more expensive and block bargain basement models from sale.

New cars with lane departure warning and lane keeping assistance features use a camera to look for painted lines on the road.

Lane keeping assist features scan the road for painted lines, then help cars stay in place.

Simple systems alert drivers if a car leaves its lane, while more advanced features actively steer the car to prevent it from leaving the correct lane.

Though it sounds good in theory, the systems can prove to be a nuisance in the real world, with some cars “pinballing” from side to side within their lane.

We’ve experienced the highs and lows of lane keeping systems in the real world.

Advanced systems such as Tesla’s autopilot can help steer for you. Photo: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg

They can put you back on track following a brief lapse in concentration, but can also steer you toward road hazards such as debris or cyclists that you may need to avoid.

A report released by the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications shows the Federal Government hopes to introduce new requirements surrounding lane keeping assistance in freshly introduced vehicles from March 2024 and all new cars from March 2026.

A regulation impact statement examining lane keeping systems for light vehicles suggests crashes caused by “unintentional lane departure … result in 55 per cent of all road fatalities” - or 72 per cent of road deaths at highway speed.

The systems are relatively common in new cars.

Government figures suggest making lane keep assistance tech mandatory will result in almost 7000 lives saved between 2024 and 2068. The modelling shows 23,648 serious injuries would be avoided, providing the community “a likely net benefit of $2,442 million”.

The Department of Infrastructure’s report suggests the cost of adding lane keeping technology to new cars will only be around $345 per vehicle, as it can be integrated into camera-based auto emergency braking systems, along with stability control and crash avoidance features that work on a car’s brake and steering systems.

Subaru’s ‘EyeSight’ system uses twin cameras to look for road hazards.

Auto emergency braking is required in all new cars sold in Australia from March 2023.

Auto emergency braking and lane keeping assistance features are found in the majority of new vehicles, but not cheaper models such as the China-sourced MG3 hatchback or LDV T60 ute.

Safety technology has been linked to increasing cost of new cars.

Back in 2015, the cheapest Honda cost $16,990 drive-away, but today you need more than $31,000 to join the club. Toyota’s Yaris has increased by nearly $10,000 in that time.

Safety tech is making small cars more expensive.

Defending a 40 per cent price increase for the latest Yaris, Toyota’s vice president for sales and marketing Sean Hanley said in 2020 that technology such as auto emergency braking, lane keeping assistance and innovative centre airbags placed between the driver and passenger pushed up the price of new vehicles.

“If in the event that someone can’t afford that, the credible alternative that we’re seeing is a Toyota certified pre-owned vehicle. It’s a choice,” he said at the time.

The Australian Government is open to public feedback surrounding the introduction of lane keeping systems until February 27, 2022.