New whitepaper supports necessity of proper calibrations, calls for universal standards
A new whitepaper from Ascential Technologies, Sentric, and ADAS Garage explores the safety implications, financial costs, and liability risks associated with failing to recalibrate or improperly recalibrating advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) in vehicles.
It also calls for universal ADAS calibration standards, as well as nationwide recalibration requirements and best practices.
“ADAS are proven, life-saving technologies that can significantly reduce automobile crashes and their severity,” the paper states. “However, the effectiveness of ADAS technologies is contingent on their components being precisely calibrated during production and properly recalibrated after a collision or during maintenance — something that is too often neglected.
“Despite becoming standard in nearly all modern vehicles, ADAS technologies are frequently left misaligned following repairs due to a lack of equipment, expertise, or standardized procedures in retail motor vehicle repair shops. This ‘calibration gap’ not only undermines road safety by potentially contributing to otherwise preventable injuries and fatalities, but also results in substantial financial losses to consumers, insurers, automakers, service providers, and society as a whole.”
The paper notes that U.S. National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy has described yearly traffic deaths as “a growing public health crisis on our roads.”
Fatalities reached nearly 40,000 in 2024, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).
While the number of 2024 fatalities is a 3.8% decrease compared to 2023, last year was the fifth consecutive year with more than 39,000 roadway deaths, the paper says.
Ascential ADAS Solutions President Brunno Moretti shared a perspective on the number of annual traffic deaths to further highlight what he also believes to be a public crisis.
“If you compare that to aviation, it’d be almost like a 737 falling out of the sky every day,” he said. “When I look at that number, there’s a lot of preventable stuff there that we could be doing more of.”
The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) continues work on rolling out its National Roadway Safety Strategy (NRSS) through partnerships with “Allies in Action” to curb crisis-level road deaths.
The NRSS was released in January 2022 and outlines a concrete set of actions USDOT has committed to. It adopts a five-pronged “Safe System Approach” — safer people, safer vehicles, safer speeds, safer roads, and better post-crash care — to reduce roadway fatalities.
The Road to Zero Coalition, a National Safety Council initiative funded by NHTSA, also aims to reach zero roadway deaths by 2050.
As the whitepaper points out, “improperly calibrated systems can turn avoidable fender benders into expensive repairs or serious injuries, raising the total repair and societal costs of what could have been minor incidents.”
“The upfront costs for consumers and insurers paying for calibration, and the investment costs to automakers and service centers for setting up their facilities to manage calibration, pale in comparison to the lives saved and potential economic benefits of a rapidly growing ADAS market,” the paper says.
Calibration and proper recalibration effectiveness
The paper uses an IIHS study on ADAS as an example of the level of precision and accuracy needed to ensure proper operation.
During a 2017 study, IIHS purposely misaligned a camera on a 2016 Honda Civic by 0.4 degrees to the left. The result? Lane departure warning was off by 6 inches on one side of the road and 15 inches on the other.
The camera, aimed ostensibly normally but with a bracket incorrectly mounted by the factory, was off by as much as 21 inches on one side, while a camera misaligned 0.6 degrees to the right was off by as much as 27 inches — more than two feet.
“This need for precision extends not only to the correct alignment of the sensors, but also to the calibration environment,” the paper says. “OEMs themselves require calibrations to be performed on a floor with a slope of less than 1 degree in any direction.
“Proper calibration ensures that the vehicle’s sensors can accurately perceive its environment, allowing it to correctly detect obstacles and then safely maneuver to avoid or mitigate collisions. Without ensuring that ADAS calibration and recalibration are consistently and properly completed, the technology cannot fully confront the ongoing public health crisis on America’s roads.”
In January, Ascential conducted its own ADAS tests, for which the results were released in July.
According to the data from the tests, it was concluded:
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- “Good calibration restores and enhances ADAS performance;
- “Poor calibration introduces dangerous unpredictability, even when systems appear functional;
- “No calibration results in silent failure, with systems failing to activate at all; and
- “Baseline systems degrade over time, reinforcing the need for calibration as a maintenance item.”
The paper notes that improperly calibrated systems can reduce consumer trust in ADAS technologies as drivers grow frustrated with systems not functioning correctly.
The results of another IIHS survey, released in February 2024, show that more than half of survey respondents reported persistent issues with ADAS features after repairs, with issues more common in vehicles repaired at independent shops versus dealership service centers.
“These findings show a clear calibration gap for ADAS that threatens to become an urgent safety crisis,” the paper states.
“The reasons why recalibration is not as widely conducted as necessary are often because either a repair shop does not have the necessary equipment and/or expertise to do so, or they may not have thought to recalibrate a vehicle’s ADAS when simply removing a part that is not obviously supporting ADAS functionality,” the paper states. “Repair shops are often left to personally identify the type of ADAS a vehicle is equipped with and then dig through repair procedures for each sensor, mounting parts, or calibration procedure, which can be time-consuming and costly.”
Plans for mandated ADAS implementation
The paper notes that, according to NHTSA, mandating AEB in all light-duty vehicles starting with model year 2029 would “save at least 362 lives and mitigate 24,321 non-fatal injuries a year.”
According to FMVSS No. 127, vehicles produced by small-volume manufacturers, final-stage manufacturers, and alterers must be equipped with a compliant AEB system by Sept. 1, 2030, that must stop and avoid rear-end crashes at up to 62 miles per hour. The AEB must also detect pedestrians day and night, engage at speeds of up to 90 mph when a collision with a lead vehicle is imminent, and at speeds of up to 45 mph when a pedestrian is detected.
However, NHTSA says the compliance date of the rule could be extended by two years, according to a unified agenda item for a proposed rulemaking. A Notice of Proposed Rulemaking is planned for publication in February 2026.
Creating nationwide recalibration performance-based requirements and best practices would help sustain the growth of the ADAS calibration service industry and encourage the development of more advanced calibration technologies to improve performance and ensure greater safety.
Plus, as the report notes, by failing to properly calibrate ADAS the first time vehicles are in the shop, “repair shops are opening themselves up to liability, as repair entities are also beginning to face legal exposure for improper repairs that lead to injury.”
Critical safety consequences notwithstanding, the economic implications of [the] ‘calibration gap’ are significant,” the paper says. “[S]ervice centers miss out on a lucrative and growing revenue stream while also incurring legal exposure for subpar service, and the broader ADAS calibration industry — which could grow to $50 billion by 2030 — is stifled by inconsistent practices. Implementing universal calibration standards and best practices would help mitigate these harms, enhance public safety, reduce long-term costs, and fuel workforce development in a high-skill sector.”
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