Driver-assistance technology and your driving test
A 3-minute lesson from the Iowa course. Read the rules and examples, follow the handbook page references, and check your understanding before you move on.
Advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS)—automatic emergency braking, blind spot monitoring, forward collision warning and more—keep everyone safer, but only if you use them correctly and understand their limits.
ADAS
Advanced driver-assistance systems: technology features designed to increase the safety of driving a vehicle.
During a driving test you may be assisted by vehicle safety technologies such as back-up cameras, but not by convenience technologies like adaptive cruise control.
You must show you can operate the vehicle without the technology—in case it must be disengaged manually, stops working, or you drive another vehicle without it.
Driver assistance technologies help you avoid hazards and crashes; some adjust the vehicle automatically, some help you brake or steer—but you may still need to act.
Your test vehicle has a rear camera and adaptive cruise control. You may use the camera while backing (along with mirrors and head checks), but adaptive cruise must stay off.
Check your understanding
Read the question, decide on an answer, then open it to check the explanation. These are Roadwise study questions based on the source handbook.
Which of these is permitted to assist you during an Iowa driving test?
Adaptive cruise control
Automatic parallel parking
A back-up camera
Nothing electronic is ever permitted
Answer: A back-up camera
Back-up cameras and similar vehicle safety technologies are permitted during a driving test, unlike convenience technologies.