The U.S. Department of Transportation’s (USDOT's) National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has proposed making automatic emergency braking (AEB) and pedestrian AEB systems required for passenger cars and light trucks.
The goal is to reduce the number of crashes associated with pedestrians and rear-end crashes that claim about 360 lives per year and cause 24,000 injuries annually. Additionally, the AEB systems would reduce property damage from rear-end crashes by avoiding many altogether or making them less severe, NHTSA said.
“Today, we take an important step forward to save lives and make our roadways safer for all Americans,” said Pete Buttigieg, U.S. Transportation Secretary. “Just as lifesaving innovations from previous generations like seat belts and air bags have helped improve safety, requiring automatic emergency braking on cars and trucks would keep all of us safer on our roads.”
The rule is part of USDOT’s National Roadway Safety Strategy (NRSS) that seeks to reduce traffic fatalities and injuries by adopting technologies to prevent crashes. The strategy is part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which gives more than $800 million in grants to help communities carry out projects to address high-crash areas.
What is an AEB system
AEB systems use sensor technologies to detect when a vehicle is close to crashing and then automatically applies the vehicle brakes if the driver has not done it. It may also put more braking force to supplement the driver’s braking if necessary to avoid or mitigate the severity of a crash.
Pedestrian AEB is used to recognize and avoid pedestrians at night by warning drivers via a light on the dashboard or windshield and then taking action if the driver does not heed the warning by applying emergency brakes.
The technology is part of advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) that are actively being included on newer vehicle models as the call to enhance safety is growing, technology has improved to enable these features and it is a way to differentiate between vehicle brands for automotive OEMs.
“We’ve seen the benefits of the AEB system in some passenger vehicles already even at lower speeds, and we want to expand the use of the technology to save even more lives,” said Ann Carlson, chief counsel of the NHTSA.
Carlson said the rule would require all cars to be able to stop and avoid contact with a vehicle in front of them up to 62 miles an hour.
