HI-TECH cars have been slammed by driver training specialists as an over-complicated risk to safety.

The Fleet Driver Training Association is calling on manufacturers to standardise and clarify operation of hi-tech features, and wants dealers to give full instructions to drivers before they leave showrooms.

FTDA chairman James Sutherland said: "In its desire to build in extra safety, performance and comfort features, the car industry has forgotten the fact that the average driver isn't a technological whizzkid and many simply don't understand how some of these advances work.

"Very few actually read handbooks, so it's down to the makers and dealers to do something about a situation which is steadily getting worse.

"We already have a plethora of recently-introduced features like 'traction control' and 'brake assist', yet many drivers still don't have a clue how the now very common ABS works or what it does. Then there are things labelled with initials like 'DSP' or 'ASP', which don't mean a thing to the average user without proper instruction.

"To give you an example, one driver I know has a car fitted with traction control.

"There's another button on his dash marked 'Snow'. No-one explained what these features do, and he had inadvertently switched off the traction control - as he wasn't sure whether the light which came on meant traction control was on or off.

"What's the point of a safety feature if its operation is so confusing?"

The FDTA, which represents 75 per cent of the companies carrying out training of company car and van drivers in the UK, is even more concerned about the dangers of passenger airbags crushing babies carried in the fronts of cars in rearward-facing child seats.

Story date: Wednesday 27 October

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