Adas driving test rules — Iowa Permit Test

Driver-assistance features keep us safer only if they are used correctly, so you need to know how they work and their limits.

A feature you do not understand can give you false trust and let you miss a danger it was never built to catch.

Features like automatic emergency braking, blind spot monitoring, and forward collision warning keep us all safer, but only if they’re used correctly.

On the driving test you may be helped by safety technologies such as back-up cameras, but not by convenience technologies like adaptive cruise control.

The test checks that you can control speed and space yourself, not that the car can do it for you.

During a driving test, you may be assisted by vehicle safety technologies such as back-up cameras but should not be assisted by vehicle convenience technologies like adaptive cruise control.

Automatic parallel parking is not permitted during the driving test.

Parking is one of the skills the test is there to see you do with your own hands.

Automatic parallel parking No

Even with technology features, you must show you can drive the vehicle yourself, because the features may need to be turned off, may stop working, or you may drive a car without them.

Sensors fail, and one day you will drive a car that has none. You still have to be able to drive it safely.

Even though a vehicle has technological features, you must demonstrate the ability to operate the vehicle in case the technologies require the driver to disengage them manually, they become inoperable, or the driver operates another vehicle without the technology.

When do driver-assistance features keep drivers safer?

Only when they are used correctly. A feature you do not understand can give you false trust and let you miss a danger it was never built to catch. Iowa Driver's License Manual, p.26: “Features like automatic emergency braking, blind spot monitoring, and forward collision warning keep us all safer, but only if they’re used correctly.”