A group representing major automobile manufacturers is urging the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in the United States to reconsider the new regulations issued in April. The regulation mandates that by 2029, nearly all new sedans and trucks must be equipped with advanced Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB) systems.
According to reports by Reuters, the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, representing General Motors, Toyota, Volkswagen, and almost all other automakers, stated that the new regulation issued in April requiring all sedans and trucks to be able to emergency brake at speeds of up to 62 miles per hour to avoid collisions with vehicles in front is “practically impossible under current technological conditions.”
In the 2021 infrastructure law, the U.S. Congress directed NHTSA to establish a rule setting minimum performance standards for automatic emergency braking systems. These systems use sensors such as cameras and radars to detect when vehicles are approaching collisions and automatically apply brakes if the driver does not brake in such situations.
However, the Alliance for Automotive Innovation argued that NHTSA’s strict requirements for higher driving speeds will result in vehicles “automatically braking well before the expected time by normal drivers and others on the road,” leading to rear-end collisions. The group also believes that NHTSA “greatly underestimates the necessary and costly hardware and software modifications required for vehicle compliance.”
John Bozzella, CEO of the Alliance, stated in a letter to Congress, “NHTSA’s actions will require more expensive systems but will not improve driver or pedestrian safety.”
This regulation is one of the most far-reaching automotive safety regulations in the United States in recent years. Safety advocates have noted that the current system performance is poor, especially at night, and they argue that new rules need to be formulated to ensure the prevention of more collisions.
NHTSA has not yet commented, but in April, they stated that with the number of deaths from traffic accidents increasing post-pandemic, the new rules will save at least 360 lives per year and prevent at least 24,000 injuries.
The new regulations require the system to automatically brake at speeds within 90 miles per hour when a collision with a vehicle in the front is imminent, and at speeds within 45 miles per hour when pedestrians are detected.
In 2016, 20 automakers voluntarily agreed to make automatic emergency braking systems standard equipment on almost all U.S. vehicles by 2022. By December of last year, all 20 automakers had equipped at least 95% of their vehicles with automatic emergency braking systems. However, critics argue that without government-mandated rules, the effectiveness of this agreement cannot be ensured.