The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) announced today that 20 automakers have agreed to make automatic emergency braking (AEB) standard by September 1st, 2022, representing "more than 99 percent" of the US auto market.
NHTSA has long praised automatic braking systems as a safety win, but the technology has only recently started rolling out on a wide scale. Using forward-looking sensors, automatic braking can slow or stop a vehicle that senses it's at risk of colliding with a car, pedestrian, or other object ahead of it, even when the driver takes no action. Like many high-tech systems, automatic braking first started showing up on luxury vehicles over a decade ago before trickling down to the mainstream; nowadays, it isn't difficult to find a sub-$40,000 car that has it, but the agreement is intended to ensure that automakers stay on the path.
Notably, today's announcement is strictly an agreement, not a rule...
Automatic braking, like lane keeping and dynamic cruise control, is considered a precursor to fully autonomous vehicles...
