Modern vehicles are packed with safety and driver assistance features, many of which rely heavily on cameras and sensors to work as intended. And keeping all that high tech properly calibrated requires an expert, just like the one that now joins Audra Fordin on MotorWeek’s “Your Drive!”

AUDRA FORDIN: As the automotive industry rapidly evolves, safety and convenience have become paramount concerns for both manufacturers and consumers. Advanced driver assistance systems, commonly known as ADAS, represent a significant leap forward in vehicle technology, designed to enhance driver safety and improve the overall driving experience.

We are joined today by Steve Dawson from Hunter Engineering, who will discuss the latest ADAS technology. Welcome.

STEVE DAWSON: Thanks. Thanks for having me.

AUDRA FORDIN: Glad that you’re here. So, my customers are coming into the shop all the time, and they’re asking me about wheel alignments and the new technology. What can you tell me about that?

STEVE DAWSON: So, wheel alignments these days, we’ve added a new step to it with having to ADAS calibrations after the wheel alignment. Once we get our wheels straight underneath the car and going down the road straight, now we have to adjust our ADAS systems to get them focused in the right direction as well. If we don’t do that, things that are out of perspective or out of line, we won’t read with the cameras or the radars.

AUDRA FORDIN: So something like, if the car’s in an accident, it’s so important to make sure that you calibrate the system again, so that it’s reading. What happens if you don’t do that?

STEVE DAWSON: The challenge with not calibrating the vehicle is that it will read things that it’s not supposed to read, because maybe they’re on the side of the road or it will miss things in the middle of the road. So, in a lot of the cases, when you’re looking at 200 feet down the road, if the camera’s too high, it misses things that are below it. If it’s too low, it misses things above it, or if it’s off to one side or the other, because the car is now aligned straight and it had been turned off to one side, it’ll miss what’s happening in the lane of travel, and it could mean that it doesn’t work the way it’s supposed to or it could mean that it’s going to react to something that is a sign on the side of the road and make your automatic braking stop.

AUDRA FORDIN: Oh, that’s a very important feature, for sure. So nowadays, people come in and they don’t want to do that extra step. Can you turn it off?

STEVE DAWSON: Unfortunately, the way that the cars are designed today, all of these systems are all fully integrated, so there’s really no way to turn it off other than maybe a temporary turn off, and the next time you cycle the key it’s going to turn right back on for you. But all of those inputs affect all the other systems, so things you may want to have working, like your cruise control or your automatic headlights, may not work, because your ADAS system is not calibrated correctly. So, they’re all working together, today, in these cars.

AUDRA FORDIN: Well, that’s excellent information. Thank you so much, Steve. Looking forward to seeing you again and joining us.

STEVE DAWSON: Thanks, thanks for having me.

AUDRA FORDIN: If you have any other questions or comments, please reach out to us, right here, at MotorWeek.