Back in April 2024, GM Authority reported that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced that it would mandate all new passenger vehicles, including cars and light trucks, to feature the Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB) technology as standard equipment by September 2029. With that in mind, the Alliance for Automotive Innovation – which represents major automakers like General Motors – has requested the administration to reconsider the AEB standard.
According to a report by Reuters, the alliance stated that to make all cars and trucks stop and avoid striking vehicles in front of them at speeds of up to 62 miles per hour is “practically impossible with available technology”, and that these higher speeds could actually result in an increase of rear-end collisions due to braking far in advance at what other drivers would typically expect.
Beyond that, the Alliance for Automotive Innovation is also arguing that the NHTSA has “vastly underestimated the necessary and costly hardware and software change required for vehicles to comply.”
“NHTSA’s action will require more costly systems that won’t improve driver or pedestrian safety,” Alliance for Automotive Innovation CEO John Bozzella wrote in a letter to Congress. He added that the agency has rejected automakers’ concerns and the regulation “points to the breakdown of a deliberative rule-making process at the country’s top traffic safety watchdog.”
It’s worth noting that Congress directed the NHTSA to create such mandates to establish minimum performance standards for automatic emergency braking systems back in 2021.
As a reminder, the AEB standard is part of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s broader National Roadway Safety Strategy initiative. The NHTSA hopes that the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS No. 127) will save at minimum 360 lives and prevent over 24,000 injuries every year.
In regard to specifications for the technology itself, the NHTSA is looking to require vehicles to avoid collisions at speeds up to 62 mph, as previously mentioned, along with detection of pedestrians in differing light conditions. There are also stipulations for application of the brakes up to 90 mph for vehicle detection and 45 mph for pedestrian detection.
Notably, these regulations would apply to nearly all U.S. light vehicles with a gross vehicle weight rating of 10,000 pounds or less.
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I don't want this garbage in my automobile. I'm the driver. I will decide when it's necessary to apply the brakes.
When the Feds and States mandate a feature on cars and trucks, then the Feds and States should pay for these features. We would probably save half the cost of new cars. Just look at the cost of replacing restraints, air bags and emission components.
The problem with the feds paying for it is that you end up paying for it through your taxes. Not a good solution.
This is a regulation. It has nothing to do with the Feds or the taxpayers paying for anything. It is to keep the manufacturers from selling unsafe products that the buyer would have no way of identifying on their own.
They always claim this every time there are regulation changes.
The story of the boy who cried wolf comes to mind.
Regulations may come with costs associated for companies. Of course these companies are going to squawk as much as possible to save themselves any dollar they can.
It doesn't cost the companies anything except lower total sales due to higher prices. Just add $1500 to the cost of that EV you're planning on buying in 2029.
Who better than some no good f'd up politician to tell automakers how to build their cars.
Mandate is the new Freedom. Do what you are told to do. You can't make your own choice.
Emergency braking has been the only driving technology I've kept engaged on my vehicle. However, to the point of it causing rear end collisions, I was going down a 4-lane highway the other day in the right hand lane. The car ahead of me was turning off to the right. I started to drift into the left lane to go around him, but this wasn't good enough for the car. Emergency braking engaged, which was alarming. I thought, if someone would have been in the left lane, the emergency braking could very well have caused me to get rear ended at a high rate of speed. I still have it enabled, but I'm considering disabling it.
Driving a rental Toyota, with lane keep assist, I was passing a wide load 9 class big rig with the 38 wheel setup, and when I swung wide to give home room, the car boosted the steering wheel back towards a centerline occupied by a bridge component, to which I yanked back the wheel to avoid a collision, which the car responded by wrestling me back to possible fatal collision. After that I pulled over and went through a dozen pages of settings to turn off that crap. In the 90’s, 2K, we got by great without them. NHTSA should focus on the real culprit for most crashes, drunk driver and street racers. Not junk that just makes cars more dangerous and unaffordable for the middle class.
I am so happy that my 2022 Spark does not have this terrible option!!! I Drive, I apply brakes...!
The car companies are making spurious arguments.
One of the arguments is that the technology doesn’t exist, yet they offer it on a LOT of cars.
Another is that the technology doesn’t work well, yet they offer it and push it in a lot of cars.
They’re gonna lose.
This raises an interesting point. Would NHTSA be mandating this if the car maker hadn't invented this technology?
Probably these rules come with penalties for "non-compliance" as a means of double taxation on innocent companies and fellow Americans.
Curious if anyone knows. I thought there was a regulation that required EV's at slow speeds to make some noise. I almost got run over by a tesla as I was walking that was creeping along yesterday. I know I hear some EV's, the Lyriq & VW's make a noise (not motor noise, comes from a speaker I'm sure), but nada on tesla's.
Yes they are so required. But there are a lot of EV's on the road that were made before the regulation was passed. The regulation took effect for 2020 cars and later (probably 2021 model years), EV's started significant production in 2011 and almost all are still in use.
It’s stupid that it only applies to EVs.
Automakers obviously don't mind killing people if it improves their profits so that they can do stock buy backs. That's why we need regulations like this. It is no argument at all that only one car could pass this today. That proves it can and does work. The other companies have 5 years to catch up. Which is too generous in my opinion.
Don’t say Tesla- cybertrucks that accelerate when you hit the breaks too hard comes to mind.
Dear NHTSA,
Be careful what you wish for. You're not auto engineers. You're a bunch of policy makers.