Skip to main content

NHTSA to add automatic braking systems vehicle safety features

US Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx has announced that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration plans to add two cutting-edge automatic emergency braking systems to the recommended advanced safety features included under its New Car Assessment Program (NCAP) – the latest step in a half-century of safety innovations that have saved more than 600,000 lives, according to new NHTSA research. The agency plans to continue to encourage development and commercialization of additional promising saf
January 23, 2015 Read time: 3 mins
US Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx has announced that the 834 National Highway Traffic Safety Administration plans to add two cutting-edge automatic emergency braking systems to the recommended advanced safety features included under its New Car Assessment Program (NCAP) – the latest step in a half-century of safety innovations that have saved more than 600,000 lives, according to new NHTSA research.

The agency plans to continue to encourage development and commercialization of additional promising safety-related technologies of vehicle automation through its recommendation of two automatic emergency braking systems – crash imminent braking (CIB) and dynamic brake support (DBS). The addition is the latest in a long history of safety innovations covered in NHTSA's new report, which uses data from the agency's Fatal Accident Reporting System to create a statistical model that estimated safety technologies have saved 613,501 lives since 1960.

According to NHTSA data, one-third of all police-reported crashes in 2013 involved a rear-end collision with another vehicle at the start of the crash. The agency also found that a large number of drivers involved in rear-end crashes either did not apply the brakes at all or did not apply the brakes fully prior to the crash. Crash imminent braking and dynamic brake support systems can intervene by automatically applying the vehicle's brakes or supplementing the driver's braking effort to mitigate the severity of the crash or to avoid it altogether.

These AEB systems, along with promising innovations such as vehicle-to-vehicle communications (V2V) and automated vehicle technologies hold great promise to save even more lives and prevent even more crashes, building upon the successes of crashworthiness and crash avoidance technologies currently available in vehicles today. As these technologies mature, NHSTA will continue to accelerate its push on innovative and effective solutions to reduce the staggering toll of motor vehicle crashes in the U.S. through our research, regulatory, and consumer information programs.

The NHTSA action also marks the first step in a broader revision of NCAP and seeks to ensure the program continues to encourage both consumers and automakers to develop and adopt advanced vehicle safety technologies.

"Adding AEB to our list of recommended features will encourage consumers to consider AEB as a factor in their new car purchase and encourage automakers to make this important innovation more widely available," said NHTSA Administrator Mark Rosekind. "NCAP is a critical tool for enhancing safety, so we are also looking at additional innovations to the program to capitalise on this exciting period of progress in safety technology."

Related Content

  • December 14, 2016
    Automakers, safety advocates, ITS community welcome action on V2V technology
    A coalition of US automakers, highway safety advocates and intelligent transportation organizations welcome the release of the Department of Transportation's notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) to establish an interoperable platform for vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications in new vehicles to provide safety and mobility benefits. Citing an enormous potential to reduce crashes on US roads, the US Department of Transportation believes the proposed rule that would advance the deployment of connected vehi
  • January 15, 2016
    ITS America applauds US DOT decision to accelerate automated and connected vehicle projects
    The Intelligent Transportation Society of America’s (ITS America) President and CEO Regina Hopper has applauded the announcement by US Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx that the Obama Administration has proposed US$4 billion over 10 years for automated and connected vehicle pilot projects that accelerate vehicle safety technologies. Secretary Foxx also announced that the US DOT is removing potential roadblocks to the integration of innovative, transformational automotive technology that can signific
  • July 29, 2016
    Ignoring deadly defects in autonomous cars serves no one, say auto safety advocates
    The US Center for Auto Safety, Consumer Watchdog and former National Highway Traffic Administration (NHTSA) administrator Joan Claybrook have told NHTSA administrator Mark Rosekind that "you inexcusably are rushing full speed ahead" to promote the deployment of self-driving robot car technology instead of developing adequate safety standards "crucial to ensuring imperfect technologies do not kill people by being introduced into vehicles before the technology matures." In a letter to Rosekind in response
  • February 4, 2014
    High level support for US DOT decision on vehicle to vehicle technology
    The US Department of Transportation's (DOT) National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is to begin taking steps to enable vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication technology for light vehicles. This technology would improve safety by allowing vehicles to communicate with each other and ultimately avoid many crashes altogether by exchanging basic safety data, such as speed and position, ten times per second. DOT research indicates that safety applications using V2V technology can address a large