Automakers agree to make auto braking a standard by 2022
The private-public agreement could save lives.
By 2025, almost all new vehicles in the US will come with automatic emergency braking systems, thanks to a pact 20 automakers made with the government. The companies and the US Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, as well as the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety agreed to make technology a standard feature on all new cars. A lot of automakers -- including Volvo, Ford, Honda and Toyota, just to name a few -- have been incorporating auto braking into some of their vehicles for quite a while now. But this joint initiative ensures that the technology will become a common item in new cars' feature lists within a few years' time.
The technology typically use sensors, radars, lasers and cameras to determine if you're about to collide with other vehicles or objects. It then automatically hits the brakes if you react too slowly. Back in 2012, the European Union passed a legislation that requires new cars to have AEB. The corporations involved in this project agreed to make the pact on their own, though. And that, the NHTSA believes, will make automatic emergency braking a standard feature "three years faster than could be achieved through the formal regulatory process." Within those three years, it could prevent up to 28,000 crashes and 12,000 injuries, based on data from the IIHS.
The twenty automakers are:
Audi
BMW
FCA US LLC
Ford
General Motors
Honda
Hyundai
Jaguar Land Rover
Kia
Maserati
Mazda
Mercedes-Benz
Mitsubishi Motors
Nissan
Porsche
Subaru
Tesla Motors Inc.
Toyota
Volkswagen
Volvo Car USA
Under the agreement, all vehicles that weigh 8,500 pounds and below, such as cars and average pick-up trucks, are required to have auto braking systems by September 1st, 2022. The companies will have a bit more time to adapt the technology for anything heavier than that, though: the deadline for vehicles that weigh 8,501 to 10,000 pounds is September 1st, 2025.
