Subaru Crosstrek driver blames lane centering technology for crash

Tobias Marzell doesn’t think he’ll ever use the lane-centering feature on his 2021 Subaru Crosstrek again after he thinks it caused an accident during his morning commute to work last month.

Marzell was driving on Highway 30 near Brossard, Que., when he noticed the steering wheel pulling him slightly to the left. As he entered a corner, Marzell said he made his own adjustments to keep the car left of the center line.

Suddenly, the steering wheel “decided to jerk violently to the right and immediately I collided with the vehicle on my right,” said Marzell, who was traveling at about 60 miles per hour.

Marzell drives about two hours a day back and forth to work. It can be tiring, so he turned the feature on often.

“You don’t always have to hold the handlebars tightly and make constant corrections,” says 23-year-old Marzell. “It lets the drivers relax a little bit.”

Marzell purchased the car from a Subaru dealer in the fall of 2022. Initially he said the lane keep assist was much more subtle and that the pulling would stop once he corrected it.

But in recent months, he said he felt the steering wheel pull much more aggressively, but nothing like what he experienced the day of the accident.

Fortunately, neither driver was injured. But he is at fault for approximately $10,000 in damages to his vehicle and approximately the same amount to the other driver’s vehicle.

Both Transport Canada and Subaru Canada are now investigating what happened and whether it is related to the advanced driver assistance technology now common in new vehicles.

“Even the police officer said it’s something that’s happening more and more with these newer vehicles,” Marzell said. “It’s honestly quite scary.”

CBC News asked Quebec provincial police if they are seeing more crashes related to lane-keeping assistance, but they declined to comment.

Not all systems are equal

This type of safety feature, called Lane Keep Assist on Subarus but commonly known as Lane-Centring Assist, uses cameras and sensors to detect lane markings and make adjustments to keep the vehicle in the center of the lane and protect against drift.

“Active lane centering is actually intended to help you take tight turns, just to ease the task of driving for long periods of time,” says Jesse Caron, an automotive expert for the Canadian Automobile Association (CAA) in Quebec.

As long as there are lane markings on the road, the car follows them. The system does not work if there is snow or anything else on the road.

When that happens, drivers typically get a warning on the dashboard and the system automatically turns off, Caron said.

He said the feature is for highway driving and the CAA advises motorists not to use this feature in the city due to roadworks and construction.

Transport Canada said it has received six complaints since 2020 regarding steering assist/lane departure on various makes and models.

The complaints related to various issues, such as error messages, poor performance in icy and snowy conditions and abrupt steering corrections while driving.

The CAA has not received any complaints about crashes related to these features, but unless this has resulted in a crash, it is unlikely that people will report it. Caron doesn’t know what happened to Marzell’s car, but suspects he misinterpreted what he saw.

Each system is programmed differently. Some are gentle, while others have more of a “ping-pong” effect, which can be disturbing if you’re not used to it, he said.

“You really have to take a strong stand against it because sometimes it really wants to take you somewhere you shouldn’t go,” he said.

Caron said this can happen when a car passes heavy trucks traveling close to the center line. The driver’s instinct is to give the truck a wider berth, but the system is programmed to keep you centered.

Therefore, he says the feature “cannot replace a driver’s vigilance.”

“Paying attention and having a keen eye is still very important, especially on long drives,” he said.

Transport Canada is investigating

After Marzell’s accident, he posted on a Subaru Facebook group what happened.

Nearly 300 people responded to his post. Another driver reported a similar accident and shared photos of the damage. Others said they turned the feature off because they found it too aggressive and didn’t like the feel.

He contacted Subaru Canada, but the automaker would not speculate on the cause of the accident and told him to report the accident to his insurer.

“Should your insurer’s investigation reveal a possible vehicle defect as the cause, the insurer will contact us and we will conduct a joint investigation,” the email said.

Marzell decided to file a complaint with Transport Canada, which sent an investigator to check the car’s so-called black box and see what the computer recorded before the collision.

But the impact wasn’t severe enough to trigger the recording, so the researcher couldn’t get any data on the vehicle’s behavior.

Transport Canada also reported the matter to Subaru Canada, which sent its own investigator in early November to perform some diagnostic tests, Marzell said.

He hopes the automaker can figure out what went wrong.

A few months ago he took his car to the Subaru dealer to have the windshield replaced. This usually requires a complete recalibration of the EyeSight Driver Assist System, which uses a stereo camera system mounted behind the windshield to monitor the road ahead. Marzell said he now wonders if it was miscalibrated.

“I think my premiums are going to skyrocket next year,” says Marzell, who thinks that’s unfair. “It’s nothing I can control.”

Ask for information

Caron recommends that people familiarize themselves with their vehicle’s lane-keeping features.

This can start at the dealer before you pick up the vehicle.

“Some dealers are so aware of this that they are actually getting a second delivery,” said George Iny, executive director of the Automobile Protection Association.

“At the end of the month they invite car buyers, recent car buyers, to come over as a group in the evening for a presentation on the features of the vehicle.”

There is also a lot of information online and on the manufacturer’s site about how the features work.

The APA also does road tests and of the Subaru models it tested, the feature responded predictably, Iny said.

While there is documented evidence across all makes and models that technology such as automatic emergency braking has resulted in a reduction in rear-end collisions, the evidence is less clear when it comes to the lane-keep assist feature, Iny said.

“The jury is still out,” he said.

Iny said the standards have not fully kept up with rapidly changing technology in the industry. Transport Canada is in the process of drafting regulations.

In the United States, the CAA’s counterpart, AAA, has lobbied the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for better regulation, including some uniformity in what these features are called.

The name or acronym of the feature varies by car brand, which can be confusing.

There is also an effort to change safety standards, which Canada would likely copy, but it’s a long process, Caron said.

Difficult to prove

Both Caron and Iny suspect that it will be difficult for Marzell to prove that the car was defective or caused the accident.

“If there is an electronic component, it is often difficult to duplicate and if it is not included you have to wait for other people to report similar problems,” says Iny.

He encourages drivers to contact Transport Canada if they have a serious complaint.

In an email, Transport Canada said it is aware of a recent incident involving a Subaru Crosstrek and is closely monitoring developments.

Subaru Canada said it values ​​the safety of its owners and is investigating this incident.

Marzell doesn’t think he’ll use the feature again on his car or any other car.

“I just don’t trust it anymore,” he said. “From now on I always want to have 100 percent control over the car.”