The 5 Car Brands With the Best Active Driving Assistance (ADA) Systems
Consumer Reports is a popular product critic that thoroughly tests cars on the market, including testing the car’s tech features. One of the most important tech features in a vehicle regarding car safety is the car’s Active Driving Assistance, or ADA, system. CR recently tested and ranked those systems. Here’s a look at the five car brands with the best ADA systems.
What are Active Driving Assistance systems?
ADA systems are features found in most modern cars, but there’s plenty of variety based on the automaker. These systems are primarily safety systems, using sensors and computers to help drivers stay safe. One of the most common types of ADA systems is forward collision warning. As its name implies, it uses sensors to help warn drivers about potential collisions.
When Consumer Reports tested and ranked automakers’ ADA systems, the car critic looked at multiple aspects of using a car’s ADA systems. Those aspects included how easy the systems are to use, how clear it is about when it’s safe to use, how the system keeps drivers engaged, as well as how it deals with unresponsive drivers.
5. Toyota Safety Sense 3.0 and Lexus Safety System+ 3.0
After the tests were finished, Toyota and Lexus, which have almost identical safety systems, were ranked as the fifth-best ADA suite. The systems got a near-perfect score regarding their performance but did worse in the other categories. In particular, Toyota Safety Sense 3.0 scored poorly regarding its clarity about when it’s safe to use.
4. BMW’s Driving Assistance Professional
BMW’s Driving Assistance Professional safety suite placed at No. 4. Once again, the systems performed well, scoring identically as Toyota’s ADA system. However, also like Toyota, BMW’s safety suite received middling scores in the other categories.Â
3. Mercedes-Benz’s Driver Assistance
For the most part, the scores for Mercedes-Benz’s Driver Assistance were middling in most areas, and they were almost identical to BMW’s scores in those categories. However, the big difference between the two German automakers was that Consumer Reports gave Mercedes-Benz’s safety suite a perfect score for its performance and capabilities.
2. GM’s Super Cruise
Unlike the other automakers in the top five, the car critic didn’t give GM’s Super Cruise as high a score for how well it performed. However, Super Cruise made up for it by performing well in several other categories, including driver engagement and handling unresponsive drivers. Its only weak spot was how easy it was to use.
1. Ford’s BlueCruise and Lincoln’s ActiveGlide
According to Consumer Reports, the best ADA system is Ford’s BlueCruise, which is almost identical to Lincoln’s ActiveGlide. These systems received near-perfect scores regarding driver engagement, system performance, and when the system was safe to use. However, they scored only average regarding ease of use and handling of unresponsive drivers.
