Automatic braking will be standard in most cars and light trucks within six years and on heavier SUVs and pickup trucks within eight years under an agreement that transportation officials and automakers announced on Thursday.
The voluntary agreement with 20 car manufacturers means that the important safety technology will be available more quickly than if the government had gone through the lengthy process of issuing mandatory rules, said Mark Rosekind, head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
However, some safety advocates have filed a petition asking the government to issue mandatory regulations. They say voluntary agreements aren’t enforceable, and that since automatic braking is already available in some cars, issuing rules requiring the technology could be done faster than the six to eight years allowed under the agreement.
Automatic braking systems use cameras, radar and other sensors to see objects that are in the way and slow or stop a vehicle if the driver doesn’t react. It’s the most important safety technology currently available that’s not already required in cars.
“A commitment of this magnitude is unprecedented, and it will bring more safety to more Americans sooner,” Rosekind said.
Deborah Hersman, president of the National Safety Council, said the agreement “has the potential to save more lives than almost anything else we can accomplish in the next six years.”
There are about 1.7 million rear-end crashes a year in the U.S., killing more than 200 people, injuring 400,000 others and costing about $47 billion. More than half of those crashes could be avoided or mitigated by automatic braking or systems that warn drivers of an impending collision, NHTSA has estimated.
Of the 194 most popular vehicle models already on the market, 17 come with automatic braking as standard equipment. It is available as part of an options package in 71 other models.
The reason automakers don’t want to be required to put automatic braking into vehicles sooner than the six to eight years promised in the voluntary agreement is that they don’t want to have to redesign vehicles and change production schedules sooner than planned, said safety advocate Joan Claybrook, a former NHTSA administrator.
“This six- to nine-year lead time is all about the auto companies saving money,” she said.
The agreement requires that automatic braking be standard in most cars and light trucks with weighing up to 8,500 pounds no later than Sept. 1, 2022. The braking would have to be standard on nearly SUVs and pickup trucks with weighing between 8,501 and 10,000 pounds beginning no later than Sept. 1, 2025.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
Maybe the aftermarket will offer conversion kits for those of us who are happy with our current cars. This sounds like it would be a good option.
Being about to decide when to apply the brakes requires many sensors/cameras throughout the car. The cost of taking the car apart enough to get them where they’re supposed to be and putting it all back together again would probably make it close to the cost of a new car. Personally, I wouldn’t want to be in a car equipped with such a system.
Same here. When I’m no longer smart enough to know when to brake, I will hang up the driving gloves. Maybe they should look into making the vehicles less easy to hack into. I can’t think of anything more scary than to suddenly have my vehicle decide to do something on its’ own.
I would not like it either, the though that at any moment that your breaks may lock up is not very comforting . also what if the road is wet , there many factors why i would not like this system in any of my cars it may save lives, yet again it may also take some the ability for someone to take control of your vehicle is also not a good idea, there people out there that can and ill hack in to the system the only good idea is that police will or can shut down your gas or fuel pump , would be good to stop high speed chases if and when necessary . this may also turn out to cause problems from hackers
I agree. I do not want a car with automatic braking. It’s very dangerous. Not only that there may be a time when I actually want to hit a person or another car to save someones life. 10 to 1 the police and highway patrol WILL NOT have these systems. It’s just more Government Control, and it escalates the cost of these vehicles for purchase, repair and insurance. Our Government has gone mad and the EPA is also out of control.
How expensive are all the new improvements going to be?!! And most people don’t have a job paying well enough to afford these new cars.
The military knows that tech can fail outright or do what it doesn’t supposed to, that’s why they insist on so many manual overrides for their things. Why is mere “civilian” equipment allowed to foist automatic overrrides on us with no option for a vehicle we can actually CONTROL? I have had too much experience with the “ghost in the machine” to accept the level of automation in cars as is, and the Government just keeps shoving more down our throats. Even if they can guarentee it works as advertised, what if I end up in a situation where the least evil option is to ram the car in front of me? You say “that won’t happen”? Well I say it won’t happen that I’ll fail to hit the brakes when stopping is the best course of action. If they don’t accept my argument, why should I accept theirs?
I agree. I had the anti locking de-activated on both my trucks. I was coming down an icy hill one winter to a major highway intersection, & the braking sensor decided it wasn’t going to let me stop.Fortunately an 18 wheeler had passed just seconds before my truck stopped in the middle of the intersection. After I got safely to the edge of the road, & stopped shaking; I pulled the fuse. Tooooo much technology sometimes, is NOT a good thing.