DETROIT – In the not-too-distant future, automatic emergency braking will be required to be standard on all new passenger vehicles in the United States, a requirement that the government says will save hundreds of lives and prevent thousands of injuries each year.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration unveiled the final version of the new regulation on Monday, calling it the most significant safety rule in the last two decades. It is intended to prevent many rear-end and pedestrian accidents and reduce the number of around 40,000 traffic deaths each year.
“We are experiencing a traffic fatality crisis,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in an interview. “So we have to do something about it.”
It is the U.S. government’s first attempt to regulate automated driving features and is expected to help curb some of the problems that have arisen with driver assistance systems and fully automated driving systems.
Although around 90% of new vehicles now have the automatic braking standard as part of a voluntary agreement with car manufacturers, there are currently no performance requirements, so some systems may not be as effective. The new regulations set standards for vehicles to automatically stop and avoid collisions with other vehicles or pedestrians, even at night.
“Part of how I think we can reverse the unacceptable levels of traffic fatalities that we have lived with my entire life is through these types of technologies,” said Buttigieg, who is 42. “We have to do something.” We certainly set high performance standards.”
The regulation, which requires additional technical measures to improve software and possibly add hardware such as radar, will not come into force for another five years. That will give automakers time to strengthen their systems during the normal model update cycle, NHTSA said.
It will also drive up prices, which NHTSA estimates at $354 million per year in 2020, or $82 per vehicle. But Buttigieg said it will save 362 lives a year, prevent about 24,000 injuries and save billions in property damage.
Critics say the standards should have been introduced sooner and that they do not appear to require systems to detect people on bikes, scooters or other people at risk.
The new rule requires all passenger vehicles weighing 10,000 pounds (4,500 kilograms) or less to have forward collision warning, automatic emergency braking and pedestrian detection braking.
The standards require vehicles to stop at speeds up to 62 miles per hour (100 kilometers per hour) and avoid hitting a vehicle in front. They also have to automatically brake at speeds of up to 145 km/h if there is a risk of a collision with a vehicle in front.
The systems must also detect pedestrians during the day and night and stop and avoid them at speeds of 31 to 40 miles per hour (50 to 64 km/h), depending on the pedestrian’s location and movement.
The agency said nearly 2.2 million rear-end collisions were reported to police nationwide in 2019, killing 1,798 people and injuring 574,000 others. Sixty percent of fatal rear-end collisions and 73 percent of personal injury crashes occurred on roads with speed limits of 60 mph (97 km/h) or less.
In addition, 6,272 pedestrians died in accidents, with 65% of those people being struck by the front of a passenger vehicle.
The vast majority of deaths, injuries and property damage occur at speeds above 25 miles per hour (40 km/h), speeds not covered by the voluntary agreement, the agency said.
“Only regulation can ensure that all vehicles are equipped with AEB (automatic emergency braking) that meet minimum performance requirements,” the regulation says.
NHTSA would conduct random testing to determine whether automakers are complying with the standards.
The agency said it does not specify what type of sensors each automaker must have to meet the requirements. That’s up to the car manufacturers. But in testing 17 vehicles, only one — a 2023 Toyota Corolla with cameras and radar — met the standards.
The regulation stated that about 5% of systems would need to be equipped with radar to meet the requirements.
Cathy Chase, president of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, said the new standards will make it clear to car buyers that AEB will function properly. Most consumers are not aware that there are currently no requirements.
“On the whole, having AEB is better than not having AEB,” she said. “So when the AEB rule comes into force, the federal government will once again do its job and protect consumers.”
NHTSA said it changed its original proposal and gave automakers more than five years to meet the standards, instead of three. Chase said shorter would be better.
“The shorter the time frame, the more people will be saved, the quicker they will be able to get into cars and our roads will be safer for everyone,” she said.
Chase said she was not pleased that the rule appeared to have no standards for cyclists or scooter riders.