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GM And Other Automakers File Lawsuit To Block NHTSA AEB Rule

Describing the Biden administration’s Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB) rule as “flawed,” a lawsuit was just launched by GM and the other automakers comprising the Alliance for Automotive Innovation (AAI).

The lawsuit’s goal is repeal of the new AEB rule from the Biden Department of Transportation, the press release asserts, with the standard demanding being “practically impossible with available technology” and being likely to “lead to unsafe unintended consequences” per AAI CEO John Bozzella.

The NHTSA is the target of a lawsuit by GM and other automakers.

GM and the other automakers, through AAI, note that “Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards; Automatic Emergency Braking Systems for Light Vehicles, 89 Fed. Reg. 93,199” sets unrealistic goals for AEB. These include the ability of the system to independently come to a full stop from 62 mph both day and night when a pedestrian is detected.

The system is also supposed to brake the vehicle automatically, with no driver input, when another vehicle is about to be struck at up to 90 mph or a pedestrian at 45 mph. The mandate calls for all new passenger vehicles to be equipped with AEB systems capable of meeting these standards – achieving a no-contact stop at very high speeds – by 2029, just four years in the future.

Informational image about GM Wireless Pedestrian Detection.

GM and its fellow automakers point out that AEB was introduced voluntarily by the auto industry itself after $1 billion was spent by the companies to develop the technology. The automakers agreed in 2016 to implement AEB across their full lineups by 2025, a goal they have achieved. Further development of the technology continues.

When the NHTSA and DOT launched their new emergency braking standard in 2024 the AAI petitioned the agencies involved in June to reconsider the rule. Most of the petition’s requests were denied outright in an NHTSA response on November 25th, 2024, with changes to a few minor details of testing conceded.

Pedestrians crossing a street.

The organization says its lawsuit “should not be interpreted as opposition to AEB, a lack of confidence in the technology, or an objection to AEB’s widest possible deployment across the U.S. vehicle fleet” and remarks that it had been working in partnership with the NHTSA toward a joint goal of improving automatic emergency braking.

The AAE recommends that the NHTSA should instead adopt a standard that is already in place across Europe. This rule has been shown to be both possible to implement with current tech and to improve safety. GM and the other companies expressed surprise that the NHTSA suddenly stopped working with them and instead demanded an allegedly impossible level of performance over their objections.

The GM logo.

The NHTSA now has 40 days to respond to the lawsuit. However, the AAE also suggested the Trump administration might simply decide to repeal the new AEB rule, as is its “prerogative.”

CEO John Bozzella said that the NHTSA’s allegedly extreme standards are “a disastrous decision by the nation’s top traffic safety regulator that will endlessly – and unnecessarily – frustrate drivers; will make vehicles more expensive; and at the end of the day […] won’t really improve driver or pedestrian safety.”

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Comments

  1. The last 4 years were the WORST in my lifetime for this country. I genuinely hope better times are ahead for everyone.

    Reply
    1. They are not.

      You have NO idea of what you people have done.

      Reply
      1. You have no idea what we just avoided, at least temporarily.

        Reply
      2. We voted for Freedom not Mandate

        Reply
      3. We gave America a spine.

        Reply
      4. And you have no ideas period, while we clearly do and did ! AND you just lost !

        Reply
  2. “Impossible to meet”!

    The cry they claim anytime new regulations come their way.

    Reply
    1. When the regs are BS.

      Reply
  3. This could be a complete disaster in winter driving in the Northland….

    Reply
  4. I have that system on my 2024 vehicle and it has actuated without a problem being present. It seemed to quickly realize it was a false positive but it could have caused a problem

    Reply
    1. My 21 Escalade went into a full panic stop while driving 70 mph with cruise on and a perfect sunny day. I shudder to think what would have happened if it did this on a highway like I-75 or I-95, fortunetly I was on a back county rd.

      Reply
  5. If I need to know which diaper to use for grown adults or how to sell access to elected offices or how to ruin a country, or how to funnel taxpayer money to terrorists, I’ll ask a democrat.
    For anything else, I’ll ask someone sane.

    Reply
  6. I have emergency braking in my 2022 hyundai santa fe. I can see it helping also see it hurting. When I was backing out of my driveway it thought that there was something there when there was nothing dead stopped me! My vehicle was covered in road salt. Another annoying thing is there is no traditional cruise control only automatic cruise. It leaves too much distance, brakes too fast and hard if someone merges in your lane. Technology just isn’t too the point of not having a good human driver. Maybe they can mandate this for bad drivers?

    Reply
    1. If you hold the cruise control button, it goes into standard mode. There is more than likely a button on your steering wheel to adjust the distance. If you use your owner’s manual (or google) then you can find what you need. Hope this helps 🙂

      Reply
  7. Simply put… If you NEED electronics to keep you in your lane OR to stop/slow you car, you have ZERO business behind that steering wheel. Learn to DRIVE, not merely “steer”. Turn the gadgets off, depower your damned phone, and get your EYES working.

    Reply
  8. Another example of the worthless, clueless DEI appointments to these unelected bureaucracies running and ruining our lives with idiotic mandates that, thankfully, we just got rid of by voting.

    Reply
  9. So this is an issue and they can’t do it but full autonomous driving is ready?

    Reply
  10. Our government is still trying to fix stupid. YOU CAN NOT FIX IT.BUT US AS CONSUMERS CONTINUE TO PAY FOR IT BY GOVERNMENT MANDAITES.

    Reply
  11. I have not seen the government fix ANYTHING, they always make things worse.

    Reply
  12. I live off of a major two lane hiway with a lot of truck traffic. When building speed for a pass, adaptive cruise control slams the brakes just before pulling out to the oncoming side. AEB, using the same radar detection will undoubtedly cause at least one accident for every two it saves! If people would just take driving seriously and pay attention, we wouldn’t need any of this BS!

    Reply
  13. On this one, I think the automakers are right. The types of sensors needed to meet those standards, at least currently, exceed the fcc’s radiation output limits. The sensors that are used for the adaptive cruise and the aeb currently, are effective at preventing rear end collisions at higher speeds, it is these collisions, right behind head-on collisions when both cars are moving, that kill the most people. With texting and driving today being in my opinion a more significant problem then intoxicated driving, the current technology is saving lives, and will continue to save more lives as the US inventory of vehicles cycles to the newer model years. I have personally used the adaptive cruise on a 2025 Chevrolet equinox, and I found it to be awesome. You can set that thing driving in town on a 35 mph speed limit, and it will keep perfect distance from the car in front of you, the breaking is smooth and under control, I was really blown away by it. I think the government needs to back down on this one, the whole point of automatic emergency braking I do not believe was intended for pedestrians in the first place, it was intended to prevent high-speed collisions between two vehicles. To finish out, the types of radar sensors needed to meet those requirements would most likely increase the cost of a new vehicle at least $7,000 ….. Possibly more I’m not an expert in that field…..just for the sensors…..

    Reply
    1. That’s not even including the software to go along with those sensors.

      Reply
  14. With crash rates lower in the uk than other countries and the percentage of the vehicles there standard (manual tranmissions) I say make all vehicles standard take the bs systems off the vehicles and drive… when I was to the age of getting my licenses that’s all I wanted to do was drive. If you want to play on your phone and do everything but pay attention to the road CALL AN UBER! You want to drive the car THEN DRIVE THE DAMN THING!!

    Reply

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