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."

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Advanced Driver Assistance Systems: a solution or another problem?
    November 27, 2013
    Do Advanced Driver Assistance Systems represent a positive step forward for safety, or something of a safety risk? Jason Barnes discusses the issue with leading industry figures. Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) are already common. Anti-lock brakes or electronic stability control are well understood and are either fitted as standard or frequently requested by new vehicle buyers. More advanced ADAS features are appearing on many top-end vehicles and the trickle-down has already started. Adaptive
  • Stepped speed limits improve workzone congestion and safety
    January 30, 2012
    Traffic flow has been improved, congestion eased and safety increased - by a system of 'stepped speed limits' introduced to UK roadworks. URS Scott Wilson principal consultant Jamie Uff reports
  • Speed cameras yield long-term safety benefits, IIHS study shows
    September 2, 2015
    A speed-camera program in a large community near Washington, DC, has led to long-term changes in driver behaviour and substantial reductions in deaths and injuries, a study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) shows. Automated speed enforcement is gradually becoming more common around the country but remains relatively rare, with only 138 jurisdictions operating such programs as of last month. According to IIHS, if all US communities had speed-camera programs like the one IIHS studied in
  • New study confirms dangers when cameras go dark, says ATS
    August 1, 2016
    American Traffic Solutions (ATS) has called the findings released last week by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) ‘a stark reminder of the high stakes drivers, passengers, pedestrians and other road users face when red-light safety camera programs are turned off.’ The analysis of 14 cities that had ended their red-light camera programs during 2010 to 2014, found the rate of fatal red-light running crashes jumped 30 percent compared with the expected rate had cameras remained in use, accor