ADAS Calibration: Why ‘Successful’ isn’t always safe

ADAS Calibration: Why ‘Successful’ isn’t always safe

In the second of our series of articles on ADAS, Garage Wire columnist and ADAS expert, Iain Molloy, discusses why ADAS calibration is all about safety, not just turning off a warning light.

You only need to spend five minutes looking around a modern garage workshop to see just how much technology has changed our industry.

Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) are now commonplace, with features like lane-keep assist, adaptive cruise control, and automatic emergency braking coming as standard in many new vehicles.

But while technology and automation evolve at pace, one thing remains the same – the importance of doing the job right, not just ticking a box or being able to turn off a dashboard light.

First and foremost, ADAS is a safety system. That might seem obvious, but it’s a point often overlooked when calibrations are treated as just another fault to clear.

We’ve seen plenty of technicians perform a calibration, get a ‘Calibration Successful’ message, and think the job’s done. But if that calibration is out by just a few degrees, the system may not function as the manufacturer intended, and that could have serious consequences.

False Sense of Security

Here’s the issue: many calibration systems will return a ‘successful’ result even if the calibration is being carried out in the wrong conditions, such as on an uneven floor or in poor lighting.

The targets may be positioned incorrectly, or worse still, stuck to a ladder or held by someone. However, the system doesn’t always know that. It only knows that a procedure was followed. The resulting ‘Calibration Successful’ green tick can give a false sense of security – not just to the technician, but to the customer whose calibration report tells them it’s safe to rely on the vehicle’s ADAS.

According to a report in 2023 by the European Transport Safety Council, vehicles with properly functioning ADAS features can reduce certain types of collisions by up to 38 percent. That’s a big number and a compelling reason to make sure the systems are functioning exactly as the manufacturer intended. However, that effectiveness drops dramatically when systems aren’t calibrated accurately following repairs such as windscreen replacement, bumper removal, and any work that alters the geometry of the vehicle.

Training Is Not an Optional Extra

A risk right now is the temptation to invest in ADAS equipment without investing in the training to go with it. Tools are only as good as the hands that use them. A technician might be able to follow on-screen prompts, but without a full understanding of reference points, environmental conditions, and vehicle-specific procedures, it’s very easy to get it wrong and not know.

In 2024, the IMI reported that only 22% of UK technicians working in garages that regularly deal with ADAS-equipped vehicles held a formal ADAS calibration qualification. That’s a real concern. Because if the calibration is inaccurate and a safety-critical system fails to perform, who’s liable?

Think Beyond the Dashboard

It’s not enough to make a warning light disappear. We must think about what that system is there to do, whether it’s helping a driver stay in their lane or bringing the vehicle to a stop in an emergency. The ADAS might be the only thing standing between a driver and a serious accident. When you look at it that way, calibration isn’t a technical job — it’s potentially a lifesaving one.

For technicians, this means staying informed, getting trained, and respecting the complexity of ADAS. For garage owners, it means making sure your team is equipped and qualified to deliver calibrations that are accurate, not just acceptable.

As more vehicles come off the production lines with ADAS fitted as standard, we’re going to see a growing demand for calibration. But volume mustn’t come at the expense of quality. We have a duty of care to make sure the systems we work on are as safe as the manufacturers intended.

Because when it comes to ADAS, ‘good enough’ just isn’t good enough.

Iain Molloy is Managing Director at A1 ADAS Group. Contact him here.

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