Car technology has been progressing steadily as new features make it easier for drivers to use the vehicle, as well as make it safer for both them and pedestrians. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration proposed that automatic emergency braking should be a standard feature.
Automatic Emergency Braking in Every Vehicle
With the current vehicular technology we have now, it's more possible than ever to add an automatic emergency brake feature. This could significantly reduce the number of vehicular accidents on the road.
In fact, the NHTSA even claims that it would save 360 lives and prevent 24,000 crashes each year. The vehicle would be able to detect if the car ahead is slowing down and alert the driver. In emergency cases, the automatic braking would be triggered.
The proposed standard feature will work through a forward-looking sensor using radar or a camera, as reported by Ars Technica. This feature has already been used in car brands like Tesla, Honda, Hyundai, and several others.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg likened the automatic emergency braking system to lifesaving innovations from previous generations such as seat belts and airbags, saying that the proposed feature on cars and trucks would keep us all safer on roads.
Before the NHTSA even thought about mandating the feature, many car companies, as mentioned before, have already started equipping their vehicles with automatic braking in 2015. The pledge started with ten companies, which was joined by then more in the next year.
The automatic emergency braking feature has already been tested out around eight years ago and it shows the rate of vehicle collision when the feature is used has dropped 38%. With certain advancements, in the last eight years, that rate might even go lower.
Despite innovations, the systems for automatic braking still cannot detect humans, which could be helpful for people who cross the roads. There's also the issue of the system's performance being affected by low light such as nighttime and vehicles at higher speeds.
The Dangers of Automatic Braking
One advantage of the feature already being tested out is that it shows how effective it can be in reducing incidents of collision, yet the feature can also be the reason why some vehicles get into accidents caused by a malfunction where the brakes are engaged out of nowhere.
Back in 2020, car owners filed a class action suit accusing Audi and Volkswagen vehicles of braking randomly due to a defect. False emergency braking can cause a number of accidents not just for the owner of the vehicle but for other cars as well.
For instance, a vehicle suddenly braking in the middle of the highway can cause the car in the rear to hit them as a result, as pointed out by Galine, Frye, Fitting & Frangos LLP. This could in turn cause more cars behind to join in on the collision, causing a domino effect.
There's no way of saying if the modern technology we have now can fix this problem yet, especially since even Tesla and Honda have been linked to several cases of "phantom braking" caused by system defects or false positives.
