For example, the Lane Departure Warning on my 2023 SUV sounds an alarm if, intentionally or not, I drift laterally across a white line. It's designed to prevent my veering off course from distraction or sleepiness.

Research has established that such systems do prevent crashes. Nevertheless, some drivers find their winks and prods irritating and often unnecessary. Recently, a carefully constructed study has shown that use of them also modifies driver behavior and that the change is often for the worse.The study, by researchers at universities in the United States and Hong Kong, drew its data from telematics collected in the US by a major, and unnamed, car maker. The telematics data, whose widespread collection by manufacturers has spurred efforts to protect driver privacy, provided information on vehicle performance, such as speed and acceleration, and vehicle trips, such as when and where vehicles were running.