Automakers To Make Auto Braking Standard By 2022

Automatic Emergency Braking will become standard on virtually all cars sold in the United States by 2022. The development is the result of an unusual consortium formed last autumn that is expected to serve as precedent for other efforts to get advanced safety technology into new vehicles faster than would be possible through the traditional legislative process.

Emergency Auto Braking, also known as Automatic Emergency Braking, can detect when a vehicle is at risk of getting into a front-end collision and slow it or even bring it to a full stop. A recent study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, or IIHS, found that it can reduce such collisions by as much as 40 percent.

Mark Rosekind, Director of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration signaled the government’s goal of encouraging the use of advanced technology – up to and including fully autonomous vehicles – during an appearance at a conference on self-driving technology in Detroit.

"We need a higher bar if we’re going to get to zero," he said, referring to a goal of having zero fatalities on U.S. highways. "Safety technology offers us that opportunity."

Highway fatalities have plunged about 40 percent since peaking in the 1970s, despite having more cars on the road driving significantly more miles. The death total fell to 32,675 in 2014, though it did take an unusual rise of about 8 percent last year, NHTSA has estimated. Distracted driving – including texting behind the wheel – is considered one reason behind that rise.

New technologies have already contributed to the decades-long downturn. That includes passive safety systems, such as airbags, designed to help an occupant survive a crash; and newer active safety technology. The IIHS and NHTSA have suggested that electronic stability control has been one of the most important breakthroughs in recent years, but even more advanced systems are starting to roll out onto the market.

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