Proposal Seeks to Make Automatic Emergency Braking Mandatory in New Vehicles

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has introduced a new regulation aimed at accelerating the adoption of automatic emergency braking (AEB) technology and its pedestrian protection capabilities.

On May 31, NHTSA unveiled a proposal that would mandate all new passenger vehicles to be equipped with AEB capable of preventing crashes with other vehicles at speeds up to 50 mph. Additionally, the vehicles must have the ability to stop for pedestrians at speeds of up to 37 mph, even in dark conditions.

This proposal, which comes in response to a mandate from the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law, seeks to enhance the existing standard front crash prevention systems found in most new vehicles. The inclusion of pedestrian detection, particularly in low-light situations, is of paramount importance given the alarming rise in pedestrian fatalities in recent years.

In March 2022, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) and the Highway Loss Data Institute (HLDI) jointly petitioned federal regulators to require all automakers to equip new passenger vehicles with AEB systems capable of detecting and avoiding pedestrians both during the day and at night.

Both the HLDI’s analysis of insurance claims and the IIHS’s study of police-reported crashes have demonstrated significant benefits from pedestrian AEB systems. However, the IIHS study revealed that the effectiveness of these systems is limited at night, particularly on unlit roads, where more than a third of fatal pedestrian crashes occur.

Since the initial commitment, AEB technology has evolved from detecting other vehicles to recognizing and preventing collisions with pedestrians, and some systems even include cyclist detection capabilities.

This year, the inclusion of the nighttime pedestrian test became a requirement for automakers to achieve the highest safety designation from IIHS, the TOP SAFETY PICK+.