IIHS: Car Back Up Sensors Paired With Auto Brakes Reduce Crashes By 40%

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MIAMI (CBSMiami) -- New technology can help drivers avoid the fender benders that are all too common in parking lots and driveways.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety tested rear crash prevention programs and the results are out.

When a Subaru backed into a parked car, the crash damage tops $1,100 to fix.

With auto brake, the crisis was averted.

Low speed back up crashes happen in parking lots and driveways.

Technology to prevent back-up crashes includes cameras and cross-traffic alerts but the IIHS says the best results are when those features are paired with automatic braking.

"If you combine sensors with rear cameras you get about a 40 percent reduction in backing up crashes and if you combine sensors with cameras and autobrake you get a 78 percent reduction," said David Zuby with the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

In a test of six different models, the Cadillac Xt5 and Subaru Outback earned superior ratings.The other four got advanced ratings but were not successful in as many scenarios.

Rear auto braking is only available in about 5-percent of 2018 models but the IIHS says it's worth pursuing.

"Our data would suggest a lot of people have trouble backing up and a lot of crashes occur under those circumstances so we would recommend people seek out this technology," said Zuby.

The braking systems are designed to sense only hard objects like poles or cars but automakers are working on systems that detect humans in a car's path.