The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration made a bold move on Monday to notify automakers that within five years they will all be mandated to include technology in cars that is already widespread, if not 100 percent adopted. Starting in 2029, all new cars and trucks sold in the U.S. market will be required to brake automatically in an emergency situation. Admittedly, the rulebook will push automakers to improve their technologies, imposing stricter rules than those the tech currently operates under in most situations.
While I think 2029 is far too late, and most systems will require minor tweaking at best, it is a good piece of safety equipment to mandate, and will hopefully save many lives.
According to the new NHTSA document, the mandate will require all “light vehicles” including trucks, cars, SUVs, and vans, to be capable of applying the brakes to avoid hitting another vehicle, even if the driver doesn’t. The testing requirement will need the vehicle to completely avoid hitting an object from 62 miles per hour, and the system will be required to at least begin applying the brakes from speeds up to 90 miles per hour. Unlike many existing technologies, the system will be required to detect and avoid hitting pedestrians as well.
Honda was the first automaker to introduce a system like this, then called Collision Mitigation Brake System, in 2003. That system would provide the driver an audible warning if they were not applying enough brake to slow in time, pretension the seatbelt, and begin applying the brakes autonomously. Toyota followed with a similar system on the 2003 Japanese-market Celsior luxury sedan. Mercedes had shown a similar “Pre-safe” system at the Paris Motor Show in 2002, though it did not incorporate forward collision avoidance emergency braking in production cars until the S-Class gained autonomous cruise control in 2006.
From a New York Times report:
Carmakers have said they needed no prodding to adopt the systems, pointing out that, in 2016, they voluntarily agreed to make the technology standard in all new cars and trucks. About 90 percent of new vehicles on sale now have some form of automatic emergency braking.
This technology will be a full 26-years-old before the U.S. government mandates its application. With some 40,000 Americans dying every year in car collisions, it feels like it could have come sooner.