The driver assist features you'll want in your next used car

Key Points

• More vehicles now come with a range of advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), which can enhance safety by helping to prevent collisions.
• Key recommended features include forward collision warning, automatic emergency braking, blind-spot warning, and rear cross-traffic alert.
• Understanding the availability of these features in used vehicles can be complicated due to variations in trim levels and optional packages across different model years.
• Research tools, such as Edmunds and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration website, can aid in verifying if a used car includes the desired safety features.

In recent years, more and more vehicles at all manner of price points have come equipped with an array of advanced driver assistance systems as standard equipment. Studies from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and other organizations have shown that these features can help you keep your attention on the road and even help avoid or reduce the seriousness of a collision.

But shopping for a used vehicle can be tricky. A vehicle from seven years ago, for example, might have one or two features as standard, and then maybe a few more as optional equipment. If you’re buying used, how do you know what to look for? The automotive experts at Edmunds detail the features that they think you most need to know about and provide advice on how to determine if your next used vehicle purchase will have them.

Forward collision warning and automatic emergency braking

Forward collision warning is an advanced driving aid that can use audio or visual cues to alert a driver if the system detects that a frontal collision is likely or imminent. Systems generally can detect stationary or moving vehicles, and an increasing number can detect pedestrians and cyclists. If the vehicle is approaching a detected object too quickly, the system will issue a warning.

Automatic emergency braking adds another layer of driver assistance. It utilizes the same sensors used for forward collision warning. If the driver doesn’t react in time to the warning, the vehicle can automatically engage its brakes to slow or stop the vehicle before a collision occurs, or at least lessen the severity of the impact.

Blind-spot warning and rear cross-traffic alert

While these are two separate features, many automakers routinely bundle them together in a specific trim level or option package. Blind-spot warning is likely to be one of the most familiar advanced driver aids. Like the other systems listed here, it relies on a variety of sensors to let the driver know if a vehicle is out of view. A warning is often communicated with a visual cue located in or near the side mirrors, along with some form of audible warning.

Rear cross-traffic alert comes into play when a vehicle is put into reverse. The system emits audible and visual warnings should something or someone undetected approach from either side. This can be valuable when, for example, reversing out of a parking spot and an otherwise unseen vehicle is quickly approaching from either side.

Reverse automatic braking

One of the relatively newer features in this lineup of Edmunds-recommended advanced driver aids, reverse automatic emergency braking applies the brakes when the vehicle’s sensor array detects an impending collision with something immediately behind it. The key benefit being that, even if the driver fails to react in time to various in-car warnings, reverse automatic braking is there to take over. This feature could prevent an expensive encounter with something like a concrete wall or pillar in a crowded parking structure.

Surround-view parking camera system

Even the best drivers can use some extra help parking in snug situations. This is why Edmunds recommends a surround-view camera system. It goes beyond a typical reverse camera in that it provides a bird’s-eye view of the vehicle.

This is done by a system of cameras located around the car or truck. When in reverse, an overhead image is displayed on the infotainment screen and, in many cases, some form of guidelines and audible warnings are included to alert the driver if a nearby obstacle is too close.

How to determine if a used vehicle has these features

Unfortunately, this isn’t easy. For example, let’s say you’re shopping for a 2016 Toyota RAV4. Toyota offered an optional package when the vehicle was new that added forward collision warning and automatic emergency braking. Blind-spot warning was also optional. Oh, but you got those features as standard equipment if you bought the top Limited trim of the RAV4. Confused yet? But by 2020, the RAV4 had standard forward collision warning and automatic braking, and a surround-view camera system was optional.

Our main advice is to research the vehicles you’re interested in on auto websites such as Edmunds or check out the government’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration website. Using an artificial intelligence agent can also help speed up your search, though you’ll want to check the search’s sources to make sure.

Edmunds says

An increasing number of used cars and trucks are outfitted with driver aids that can help drivers avoid an accident and reduce some of the stressors that come along for the ride with everyday driving. As a general rule of thumb, buying the newest year you can will increase your chance of getting more advanced driver aids as standard equipment.

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This story was provided to The Associated Press by the automotive website Edmunds. Nick Kurczewski is a contributor at Edmunds.