Here’s a charming story about a van full of people that got “assisted” to the next world. or so it appears. Watch the video and see.
The van was carrying ten people – soccer fans, apparently – when its driver attempted to pass a big rig and it looks like the Lane Keep Assist (LKAS) corrected him back into the opposing lane of traffic and right into the path of another semi headed the other way – maybe because the driver hadn’t signaled he was moving back into the right lane.
You can see in the video that the van’s left turn signal was still on when the vehicle veered away from the right lane, where it was headed when it looks like the “assistance” stepped in.
Using the turn signal prevents LKAS from “assisting” you while you change lanes or turn off the road. But if you don’t use the turn signal and the system detects the vehicle leaving its travel lane – via the cameras that see where the vehicle is in relation to the painted center divider line – the system will use the electric motor that controls the steering to exert countersteering force. This is supposed to help keep a vehicle from wandering across the painted yellow center divider line on account of a driver not paying attention to his driving. But countersteering force is also applied when the driver is paying attention to his driving and means to change lanes – as to pass a slow-poke – and deliberately steers into the opposing lane to execute the pass but failed to signal first.
If you are not ready for and familiar with this sudden exertion of countersteering force, you may find yourself corrected into a situation such as the one described in the story linked to above.
There are some who say it cannot happen. That the countersteering force exerted is too mild to result in something like that. I can attest that it isn’t.
And can.
I am something of an expert witness – because I have been test driving new vehicles for 30 years and I have test driven models equipped with LKAS made by pretty much every vehicle manufactured over the past decade – which is roughly the period during which LKAS began to be installed in new cars, along with electric-assisted power steering. The latter chiefly for compliance reasons as electric-assist power steering is a way to reduce parasitical drag on an engine and thus slightly decrease fuel consumption and thereby also “emissions.”
I have driven LKAS-equipped vehicles that exerted alarmingly forceful countersteering while I was driving at high speed, sufficient to unsettle my line and potentially destabilize the vehicle. I have italicized high speed because it is an important qualifier. As anyone who drives fast knows, slight steering inputs can have big consequences as vehicle speed increases. No doubt, LKAS is generally programmed for the kind of “safe” and “legal” driving we’re all supposed to pretend is how most of us drive. In fact, many of us “speed” regularly and “speed” even more when we pass slow-pokes – because it is the only safe way to pass.
But we’re all supposed to nod our heads in agreement with the instructress when she lectures us that if the car ahead is doing 51 in a 55, then we must not go faster than 55 to pass.
If we followed these instructions, we’d rarely be able to pass. Or we’d die trying. – because we’d be in the wrong lane too long. So we drive faster than the speed limit to quickly get around the slow-poke. It’s illegal, of course. But better to risk a ticket than death from a head-on collision.
Anyhow, the point here is that if you are driving at high speed and in the process of maneuvering – as for example, changing lanes at high speed without signaling – the god-damned LKAS absolutely can unsettle your course. It has happened to me, so I know that it can. Just as I also know that a vehicle equipped with Automatic Emergency Braking can brake – hard – for no good reason, possible resulting in the car behind you pile-driving into you. That happened to me a few years ago, when a new car I was test driving suddenly braked – hard – and stopped in the middle of the road. There was nothing in the road.
Maybe the car saw its shadow, groundhog-style.
Some will say: But you should always signal! It is beside the point. Unwanted (and unexpected) countersteering force is far more dangerous than not using a turn signal.
According to news reports, seven of the ten people in that van are dead. Possibly because they were assisted to death. It is impossible to say for sure at this point. But the video seems to show that’s what happened. What’s absolutely for sure is this god-damned “assistance” tech has been embedded in everything – irrespective of the fact that every survey of new car buyers indicates most buyers do not like it and do not want it.
Yet they’re effectively forced to have it – if they want to own a new car.
A number of important questions are begged, the chief one being why would the vehicle manufacturers push a “technology” only a minority of car buyers seems to want? Imagine McDonald’s slyly replacing the hamburger patty in a Quarter Pounder with a veggie patty.
LKAS and all of the other “assistance” tech is something like that.
It isn’t “safety” that sells. It is that “safety” is being pushed.
Where we are being pushed raises a whole ‘nother slew of questions that maybe ought to be answered.
. . .
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[…] Great stories, must-reads including https://www.ericpetersautos.com/2026/01/28/assisted-to-death/ […]
The past few mornings there’s been frost on the windshield. A few hundred feet out of my driveway I’ve been getting a warning that “lane keep assist unavailable. Clean off windshield” Because the defroster doesn’t get up in-between the camera and the windshield.
So there’s a way to disable it, just like there’s a way to disable red light cameras. A well placed Eric Peters Autos No Clovers sticker should do the job.
My 2002 Silverado’s driver assist features are apparently impervious to frost. When I set out on a frosty morning last week, the only message displayed was “258744”.
Man, why did you buy a, ‘Lane assist” vehicle’ in the first place?
You write, “So there’s a way to disable it,”
Point being, why?
Same with, “there’s a way to disable red light cameras.”
This is All So, Super Fucked Up!
I very much see how this can happen, especially on an unfamiliar road in a rental – even stupider than the original lane assist is this new one where it links the indicator with being able to change lanes. Having driven quite a bit in southern / eastern Europe and the Balkans – I know I end up using more my Pakistani driving sills than what I do in the UK, and indicators are not the first thing that comes to mind in many situations out there.
And yes the first thing that throws me off when I get a rental is this “assist”, especially worse when you leave the UK where we drive on the left and land in the US or Europe and start driving on the right….
Basically now this system means instead of being hassled by a cop for not using an indicator, it can be a death sentence as seems to be the case here….
” – even stupider”
“it can be a death sentence as seems to be the case here….”
I guess, that’s, The Plan?
Dummkopfs, buy sheet, which then kills them and their family.
The End.
I ranted about this before in these comments. I almost died like this in a rental Ford Kuga in rural Poland. The roads are very narrow, so you have to put a wheel in the grass for cars to pass each other. It yanked the steering very hard to the left as I went into the weeds to avoid an oncoming truck. It was terrifying, but I was able to overpower the system. My wife wouldn’t have been able to do it, and she’d be dead.
The system had no “off”. I pulled fuses until it stopped working, which resulted in the car also disabling its power steering.
Hi OL – I dont even think you have to go as far as Poland for this. Even where I live in Surrey, just outside of London, we have a lot of roads with no proper markings and edges merging into the dirt. Now we have a ton of potholes to make it worse…. these systems just go crazy….And yes when you yank hard to correct its easy to end up on the grass!
Morning, Nasir –
Absolutely. I mentioned in the article that I have personally experienced this; it is always annoying and there is no question in mind that it has the potential to cause a crash as a result of the driver fighting the steering (and the steering fighting the driver). The risk may be low. Is that irrelevant? I thought saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaafety always comes first?
“ The system had no “off”. I pulled fuses until it stopped working, which resulted in the car also disabling its power steering. ” OL
Why do you want idiots lie?
The Ford Kuga LKA is easily turned off by using the switch on the end of the column stalk.
In addition, the Kuga has three LKA modes – one of which is a warning (steering wheel vibration) but offers absolutely no lane correction or active steering assistance to bring the car back into the lane. If you can’t manage a simple haptic vibration, you are not only a liar but a complete pussy.
Apparently you old boomers just love spouting off just like your orange hero.
It was so appropriate that EPs other article yesterdays is about being afraid of everything. Shame it was mostly about snow but it extends just as well to your Boomer and Gen X Russification that you can no longer drive without being fearful of your own cars.
Learn to read an owners manual.
Stop lying about stuff that is so easily verified to be untrue.
Grow a pair or stay in your nursing homes.
Antoine, I ask you this, why is, “The Ford Kuga LKA is easily turned off by…” rather than, The Ford Kuga LKA is easily turned ON by…?
Why is it, Opt out? And not, Opt In?
The, ‘kill switch’ is on, by default?
“Antoine, I ask you this, why is, “The Ford Kuga LKA is easily turned off by…” rather than, The Ford Kuga LKA is easily turned ON by…?”
I have seen this explained multiple times in the comments section but you either don’t read those or can’t comprehend how OEMs use LKA to limit liability”
So not sure if you can’t read, lack reading comprehension, or what your problem is.
Same applies to you- if you were truly interested a little independent research with Google would give you some alternate viewpoints on why the OEMs do what they do.
But the reality is that you are too lazy and want EP to dish up all of your answers in a neat little pile of steaming BS for you to lap it up.
I dug through all the menus (sadly, they were in German, and I don’t speak German), and found no way to turn it off. I didn’t realize there was a button on the stalk. It’s a rental. It doesn’t come with a manual.
Anyhow, I genuinely tried to turn it off and failed. If I missed the button, so be it, my fault, however, the rest of what I describe is completely true. It nearly drove me into a truck, and I pulled fuses to disable it – having not found the “off” switch.
100 percent, OL –
I’m not a weak old man. But I have had to fight for control in LKAS “assisted” vehicles. It is more than just annoying. It is potentially dangerous. Those who doubt what I’m saying might look up some of the windy/narrow country roads I drive on here in SW Va. Being”nudged” on one of those is not a welcome experience!
“ I’m not a weak old man. But I have had to fight for control in LKAS “assisted” vehicles.”
Not only content to lie by omission about the Romanian accident you’re now claiming that you can’t overcome LKA without having to fight for control.
So pathetic how far you’ve fallen.
This from the man that proudly proclaims that words have meaning. Apparently “fight for control” is now a life or death struggle with LKA.
It’s so dangerous that you keep willing driving these death traps to earn your living?
In reality, just the same ol’ journalistic tricks writ large.
It is going to be hilarious when the other OEM’s decide to stop sending cars to you. I’m surprised it took Mercedes as long as it did for them to cut you off.
Antoine,
I never said I could not overcome it. I said that LKAS exerts enough force to unsettle the vehicle. I am simply stating what I have experienced many times. And why do you hide behind false names and IPs? Are you afraid to use your real name, as I do?
“ I didn’t realize there was a button on the stalk. It’s a rental. It doesn’t come with a manual. ” OL
The real answer is because you’re a lying idiot.
Do you not have Google? World of information at your fingertips. Sure would have been easy enough to look up the ISO symbol if you were truly so worried LKA killing you.
The reality is that site is full of endless hyperbole and buffoons such as yourself that lie to try show what good neo-Luddites you are.
Why am I a lying idiot? I feel like a bit of a nincompoop for not finding that LKA disable, I’m usually better than that. I screwed up, but where have I lied?
That LKA terrified me, which is perhaps why I reacted to it a bit aggressively with the fuses.
Morning, OL!
You’re not (an idiot) just as I am not a liar. This “antoine” person contends I am making stuff up about LKAS, which I am not. I have personally experienced the tug – which is sufficient to pull the car in the direction you do not want to go and requires countersteering, which destabilizes the car and that is obviously dangerous. Try working the wheel back and forth while cornering at high speed to get a feel for it. I have also mentioned the related issue of the “brake assisted” car braking forcefully contrary to any sound reason to brake. I have mentioned that I once experienced a very forceful braking event when there were was no other vehicle ahead of me or any other sound reason for the vehicle to suddenly slam on the brakes – and yet it did just that. All of this is inherent with these “assistance technologies.” But I am lying for clicks. Whatever that means.
There it is, part of, ‘The Plan’: “My wife wouldn’t have been able to do it, and she’d be dead.”
Monsters rule the corporations and the goobermint.
It’s that simple.
“Yet they’re effectively forced to have it – if they want to own a new car”
It has come to the point where only Automotive Illiterates want a new car anyway. One of the basic driving rules one is taught or learns is to leave your left turn signal flashing while driving in an opposing traffic lane. And you do not turn it off until you are back in your traveling lane.
In Mexico, one also uses his left turn signal to alert drivers in the left lane to move over as quickly as possible so he can get by. Also, on two lane roads, one uses his left turn signal to alert oncoming traffic he is passing while straddling the center lane. Couple these driving technics with generally driving 30-50Km over the posted limit and LKAS is dangerous to use.
LKAS is bullshit and redundant. Most state roads around here have the scallops cut in the centerline and along the white line at the shoulder. If you don’t stay in your lane you’ll know it from running over the little scalloped bumps.
In my experience, approximately 95% of all drivers speed up when they realize they’re being passed. (I consider that attempted murder.) Therefore, anybody who sets out to pass another vehicle had better be ready (and able) to exceed the posted speed limit — by a lot.
Motorcyclists, who on average are better drivers than cagers (h/t Ernie), know this, and regularly “speed” — often spectacularly! — when passing.
If I’m ever ticketed for speeding while passing another vehicle, my legal defense will be necessity; the other driver sped up and was thus trying to kill me and soccer mom and all her children in the oncoming minivan. I’m serious as a heart attack here.
Correction: That hat tip for “cagers” should have gone to Sparkey.
“Preliminary results from toxicology tests conducted at Romania’s National Institute of Legal Medicine (IML) reportedly indicate the minibus driver had drugs in his blood, sources said. In addition, the front-seat passenger allegedly told investigators the driver took “several puffs” from a cannabis (marijuana) cigarette.”
https://www.mediafax.ro/english/driver-had-drugs-in-his-system-sources-say-after-minibus-crash-leaves-seven-dead-in-timis-seven-paok-fans-killed-in-romania-23677965
How embarrassing that neither the author can’t be bothered with any facts or a reference beyond a video on X.
Quoting the article:
“Possibly because they were assisted to death. It is impossible to say for sure at this point.”
You did… read… the article, didn’t you?
Hey sycophant
Interesting you left out the last bit of that quote
“ But the video seems to show that’s what happened. ”
The reality is that it will take a while for the details of this tragedy to surface.
But in classic practice of “journalism” the author is just creating controversy for clicks, speculating, and fails to report other important details like an impaired driver.
I’m assuming this is “Some Bullshit” again –
I am reporting from extensive personal experience with LKAS. I doubt you have any comparable experience. You haven’t produced any facts to counter the points I made, such as the fact that LKAS does exert countersteering force. I reported that I have personally experienced – in a number of different make/model vehicles – significant countersteering force; enough to alter the vehicle’s course significantly if not countered (manually). This has the potential to result in the car being nudged away from the intended (by the driver) direction, which constitutes an objective danger.
But what do I know. I only have decades of experience test driving new vehicles of all types.
Ditto for me, via rental I drove for 8 days in all types of conditions and roads in Europe. There was no permanent off, and to turn lane keep off required scrolling thru a menu till it came up, then select, then select OFF – each start cycle.
Some autobahn sections were pretty narrow, pass a truck and the sensors would activate if I’d failed to turn assist off. Yep, I’m trying to “thread the needle” while the wheel is tugging left with very little paved margin from the grass median. Thanks VW.
The least the manufacturers could do is allow “advanced config” so you could keep this stuff permanently off if desired. Just like the set belt chime hacks most cars have, the chime in my Jeep GC is permanently off.
Morning, Sparkey!
Yup. I’ve heard the same from scores of people who’ve experienced LKAS tugging the car in the direction they don’t want to go. I think the idea here is to condition people to being used to being kept in their lane by “technology.” It is not about “assistance.” It is about control. Ultimately, they do not want us to have any control over the vehicle. They want us to be passengers in their vehicles.
Mr. Some Bullshit –
It appears you have issues with reading comprehension. I used this incident to elaborate a general problem that is absolutely real. It is a problem I doubt you have any personal experience with (and if you do, it is minimal).
Speaking of which: I use my real name. You, on the other hand….
Just visited family in DFW, TX and drove my father’s BMW X6, which has all of the nanny aids. Very annoying. And based on my limited experience with it I could see it causing the above accident. And there were instances where the amount of force varied.
Not really impressed with the X6. Kinda blah to me. Just feels big and bulky. Had good power though.
No X account either, nor will I.
And these ‘nanny’ aids are just one more reason I won’t buy anything newer than 2020? ever again.
Apparently I’m dead and posting from the afterlife (hey, at least its warm here…) because I drive antiques, never wear seat belts, defeat and remove explosive gas cushions (AKA air bags), drive faster than the numbers on the signs, and post on this site while rolling 63 down this highway.
Its not about safety, or efficiency. Its always about tyrannical control.
There are states such as Wyoming which permit exceeding the speed limit to pass slower traffic.
Thank you for the article. I saw this story on Greek news outlets and did not even think of LA as a possible factor for this horrific crash.
My mind went to other possible factors.
Will need to share this others.
Does cause me to wonder if all this technology is worth the cost and complexity added to “our” vehicles.
LKAS also ignores the fact that in an emergency maneuver you’re not going to have time to signal. Period.
When that huge zero-turn mower falls off the back of a landscaping truck you’re not thinking about signaling. When some doofus pops from a side street you’re not thinking about signaling.
I’m surprised this doesn’t happen more often.
The machines need to be at our command. Not we at theirs.
Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics:
First Law: A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
Second Law: A robot must obey orders given by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
Third Law: A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.
beep — beep — beep — Second Law violation detected! Prepare to destroy rogue
robotvehicle.YES! My new 2026 vehicle turns everything on as I enter the car and push the start button. I have to turn off everything I do not want to be on. Whatever happened to the driver being able to make his own selections?
We have, a BINGO! “Whatever happened to the driver being able to make his own selections?”
“ I am something of an expert witness”
So exactly how many depositions have you participated in?
How many cases have you been engaged as an expert witness?
How many witnesses have you deposed?
Avoiding this technology is easier when you live in a state that doesn’t use road salt and other even harsher chemicals. Those of who live in the rust belt know that no matter what we do after 20 years or so your car will be rotted out. At this point you can either buy a Southern car and accept that it will need repairs or buy a newer car and pray this doesn’t happen to you.
Sucks but those appear to be your only choices at this point.
I fought and lost that battle with the rust bug, multiple times. Finally just moved to a different battlefield, where it’s too dry for the trust bug to survive.
I left my baby and it feels so bad
I guess my race is run
She’s the best car that I ever had
I fought the salt and the salt won
— Sonny Curtis, I Fought the Law
These technologies have nothing to do with safety, in the same way that geckos have nothing to do with insurance. They’ll increase the value of old cars in the same way that pistol capacity limits increase the value of revolvers. Market distortion courtesy of the uniparty – plan accordingly!
Sorry MO,
WHEEL GUNS ROCK…..
If you can’t put “the thing ” down in” six”……
You’ve been watching too many “action movies”.
Semper Fi
What needs to happen, is the family needs to sue the pants off of the car company. Put up any orphaned children (the younger the better), have them sniffle & cry in the witness box, load up the jury with grandmas—the standard tricks.
After losing 50 million dollars or so, they will tend to reconsider their poor choices.
Until then, I wouldn’t bet on it.
Call me cynical but it works practically every time.
Beat me to it Publius,
Those families should sue the living sh*t out of the manufacturer, costing them millions in damages may be the only way to stop this insanity.
If there’s enough of them you can maybe go class-action. Potential judgements could then be in the billions. Everyone’s looking for the next asbestos or big tobacco lawsuit. That plus the EV fiasco becomes a double whammy they might never recover from.
The bureaucrats and politicians responsible for the mandates are the ones that should meet the guillotine.
March Assholes to the Guillotines Again
Nanny Xcrement says the linked video is age-restricted adult content; login required.
But I have not signed up with Xcrement and never will.
Meanwhile, we need to sue, sue, sue the LKAS killers.
Hi Jim.
There are video down loaders that let you save an offline copy of videos.
Or maybe our expert journalist could actually cover some of the basic details like who, what, where, when, why?
Apparently posting links to X is now sufficient. Maybe he doesn’t hate X quite as much as he portrays.
Provocative! A real discussion derailer. Job well done, agent.
I would never buy a new car because of the safety shit like no seat belt so it never shuts up drives me nuts I like all mechanical stuff not electric want a car I can fix and control not the government.