The U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) made a great announcement on March 17, 2016 that 20 major automakers have decided to make Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB) and Forward Collision Warning as a standard safety feature on all the new light duty vehicles by 2022.
The list of twenty automakers includes Audi, BMW, FCA US LLC, Ford, General Motors, Honda, Hyundai, Jaguar Land Rover, Kia, Maserati, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, Mitsubishi Motors, Nissan, Porsche, Subaru, Tesla Motors Inc., Toyota, Volkswagen and Volvo Car USA.
The use of automatic braking on the cars will reduce the number of rear-end accidents significantly ensuring a safe driving experience. The AEB technology uses radars, sensors, lasers and cameras to detect the car in front and first warns the driver if an accident could occur. It then applies brakes automatically if no input from the driver is detected.
The AEB system will become standard on all the vehicles weighing less than 8,500 pounds, while a few light-duty vehicles with manual transmission might take a little more time.