Driver-assist technology like automatic emergency braking, lane centering, and adaptive cruise control are becoming more and more widespread and even sought out by buyers. But we still have very little idea how much safer they actually make the roads or even to what degree drivers use or like those features.

, researchers don’t have reliable data on anything related to these features, because the technology is still very new. There’s no good public information on how many vehicles on the road actually have these features and independent researchers cannot learn if and/or when drivers are actually using them.

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So, even small-scale studies provide at least some useful context for figuring out just what drivers actually think of these features.

Using 20 volunteers culled from the IIHS-HLDI workforce, the study found people are really keen on adaptive cruise control, but much less so on lane-centering systems:

Across all vehicles, more than three-quarters of participants agreed that the automated systems accelerated and decelerated the vehicle smoothly and detected moving vehicles ahead. But fewer than half agreed that the technologies consistently detected lane markings on the roadway, detected stopped vehicles ahead, or that they knew whether the automation detected lane markings on the roadway. And those factors played a more important role in their general perception of how well the system performed.

This, IIHS notes, they’ve done. It is also very much the opinion of several Jalopnik staffers, such as and , that adaptive cruise control is good and useful and lane-centering is mostly bad.

Everyone these days, from Tesla to Cadillac to Nissan to BMW to Infiniti, has some kind of…

Still, a study of 20 people who work for a vehicle safety research institute does not a rigorous study make. And although Erik and I are both extremely smart, worldly, and handsome individuals, we could be outliers.

So what do you think? Have you ever used lane-centering before, and if so what do you think of it? Let us know in the comments.