Auto industry pleads with Biden administration to ‘reconsider’ automatic braking rule

The auto industry’s leading lobbying group is calling on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to “reconsider” its recent rule requiring all vehicles sold in the United States to be equipped with an automatic emergency braking (AEB) system. robust, calling current technology insufficient to meet the high standards set by law. government.

In letters sent to NHTSA as well as members of Congress, the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, which represents most major automakers, says the rules finalized earlier this year are “virtually impossible with available technology.” “. The group says the auto industry’s suggestions were rejected during the rulemaking process. And it asks regulators to reconsider several key aspects in order to make this goal more achievable by the 2029 target date.

“Here is what I (unfortunately) conclude will happen,” alliance President and CEO John Bozzella wrote in the letter to Congress, “driving AEB-equipped vehicles in the United States- United under the new NHTSA standard will become unpredictable, erratic and will frustrate or discourage drivers.

Last April, the U.S. Department of Transportation finalized the rule requiring all automakers to include automatic emergency braking in their sedans, SUVs and pickup trucks by 2029. The new rule aims to prevent hundreds of deaths and injuries. tens of thousands of people injured each year.

Under the rule, all vehicles must now be able to “stop and avoid contact” with vehicles in front of them at up to 62 mph. Additionally, AEB systems must apply the brakes automatically “up to 90 mph when a collision with a leading vehicle is imminent, and up to 45 mph when a pedestrian is detected.” Vehicles must also be able to detect pedestrians day and night.

The only problem, according to Bozzella, is that virtually no cars on the road today can meet these standards. It notes that NHTSA’s own testing data found that only one vehicle met the stopping distance requirements set forth in the final rule.

If the rule takes effect, cars that detect objects on the road will automatically apply the brakes “well ahead of what a typical driver and others on the road would expect,” which could increase the risk of collisions back. . And vehicles will become more expensive because they will now have to install “necessary and costly hardware and software modifications.”

Indeed, current AEB systems are not very effective in preventing collisions. AAA has been testing AEB systems for years and has discovered a variety of common scenarios in which the braking technology completely fails to do the job advertised.

T-shaped collisions and left turns, which account for around 40% of fatal accidents, are still almost impossible to avoid with AEB. Likewise, many AEB systems fail to prevent vehicles from running over children, and at night many of them are virtually worthless.

Similarly, self-driving vehicles from companies like Waymo are often hit by human drivers due to their more conservative approach to braking objects and pedestrians on the road.

When they were first announced, safety advocates praised NHTSA, arguing that the new rules would prevent fatal crashes and protect vulnerable road users like pedestrians. While lamenting the long delay in implementation, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety called the new rule a “step forward for safety.”