US to require all new vehicles to have robust automatic emergency braking

All new vehicles will be required to have a “more effective” version of automatic emergency braking (AEB) under a new rule proposed today by the US Department of Transportation.

Around 90 percent of light-duty vehicles on the road today come standard with AEB. But the Department of Transportation is proposing a rule that would require automakers to adopt a more robust version of the technology that can stop vehicles traveling at higher speeds and detect vulnerable road users, like cyclists and pedestrians, even at night.

“AEB systems are a big step forward for saving lives on our roadways and preventing crashes,” US DOT Deputy Secretary Polly Trottenberg said at a press conference Wednesday. “When deployed, AEB systems can potentially bring a vehicle to a complete halt or at least slow them down so that there’s significantly less damage on impact.”

In 2015, a majority of automakers made a voluntary commitment to include AEB as standard in all new vehicles. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety estimates that AEB, which uses forward-facing cameras and other sensors to automatically apply the brakes when a crash is imminent, would help prevent 28,000 crashes and 12,000 injuries by 2025.

But now, the Department of Transportation and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is ready to go beyond voluntary commitments, proposing a rule that would make AEB mandatory in all new vehicles within four years of the rule going into effect.