Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance: "High-Performance ADAS Vehicles Have Accident Rates Up to 46% Lower"

Analysis of Vehicle Safety Assessment Led by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport

It has been found that vehicles equipped with high-performance Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) have accident rates up to 46% lower than those without such systems.

On the second day of the Lunar New Year holiday, the area near Seoul Jamwon IC on the Gyeongbu Expressway is congested with southbound vehicles (on the right side) leaving Seoul. Photo by Yonhap News

The Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance Traffic Safety and Culture Research Institute announced on March 24 the results of an analysis of accident rates by ADAS performance score, based on the "Korean New Car Assessment Program (KNCAP)" led by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.

The analysis was based on about 830,000 accident cases over seven years (2018–2024) involving 121 vehicle models evaluated by KNCAP from 2013, when ADAS performance assessments began, through 2023.

When analyzing rear-end collisions between vehicles, it was found that vehicles equipped with Vehicle Detection Automatic Emergency Braking Systems (AEBS) had accident rates approximately 26.5% lower than those without the system. Among vehicles with AEBS installed, those that had been evaluated had accident rates about 10.2% lower than unevaluated vehicles. Among the evaluated vehicles, those scoring 85.1 points or higher had accident rates about 11.5% lower than those scoring 85.0 points or lower.

The accident rate resulting in fatality or serious injury for passengers in affected vehicles also decreased. According to the Automobile Damage Compensation Guarantee Act, using the injury grades 1 to 6 as a standard, vehicles scoring 85.1 points or higher had fatal accident rates about 41.9% lower and serious injury accident rates about 16.0% lower than vehicles scoring 85.0 points or lower, respectively.

In collisions with pedestrians detected by AEBS, vehicles equipped with the system had accident rates approximately 28.1% lower than those without it. Among equipped vehicles, those that had been evaluated had accident rates about 11.0% lower than unevaluated vehicles. Among evaluated vehicles, those scoring 85.1 points or higher had accident rates about 8.8% lower than those scoring 85.0 points or lower.

Analyzing 23,453 cases of lane departure and centerline crossing accidents involving Lane Keeping Assist Systems (LKAS), vehicles equipped with LKAS had accident rates about 26.4% lower than those without the system. Among equipped vehicles, evaluated vehicles had accident rates about 6.8% lower than unevaluated vehicles, and among evaluated vehicles, those scoring 85.1 points or higher had accident rates about 7.3% lower than those scoring 85.0 points or lower.

For Blind Spot Detection (BSD) systems, unlike AEBS or LKAS, comparisons based on installation were not made, as it was difficult to determine whether the system was an optional feature in the analyzed dataset.

However, among vehicles with BSD installed, evaluated vehicles had accident rates about 27.9% lower than unevaluated vehicles, and among evaluated vehicles, those scoring 85.1 points or higher had accident rates about 45.8% lower than those scoring 85.0 points or lower. In terms of accident rates resulting in fatality or serious injury for passengers in affected vehicles, vehicles scoring 85.1 points or higher had fatal accident rates about 38.9% lower and serious injury accident rates about 34.0% lower than vehicles scoring 85.0 points or lower, respectively.

Rear Cross Traffic Collision-Avoidance Assist (RCCA) was also not compared based on installation, similar to BSD. Among vehicles with RCCA installed, evaluated vehicles had accident rates about 26.9% lower than unevaluated vehicles, and among evaluated vehicles, those scoring 85.1 points or higher had accident rates about 34.3% lower than those scoring 85.0 points or lower. Vehicles evaluated after 2020, which included collision warning and automatic braking performance, had accident rates about 40.8% lower than vehicles evaluated before 2019.

The institute stated that there is a need to introduce and implement performance evaluations for advanced safety features at an early stage, as vehicles with higher scores (grades) in these evaluations consistently showed lower accident rates and lower rates of fatalities and serious injuries.

Senior researcher Park Wonpil emphasized, "Even with ADAS offering the same functions, there was a significant variation in actual accident rates depending on performance. Drivers of vehicles equipped with low-performance ADAS should be careful not to blindly trust or over-rely on the system."

He added, "It is necessary to promptly introduce and implement performance evaluations for new advanced safety features already in use overseas, and to encourage automakers to develop safety technologies. Furthermore, the current ADAS discount special policy, which is applied uniformly based solely on the presence of the feature regardless of performance, should be improved to reflect the actual accident reduction effect for each vehicle."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.