Watchdog calls for automatic braking to be standard in cars
- Reference: 1685647705
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2023/06/01/nhtsa_automatic_braking/
- Source link:
The tech, which can already be found in a variety of vehicles alongside other automated driver assist technologies, brakes or slows a car when the machine detects a stopped vehicle or pedestrian in its path. [1]According to the NHTSA, implementation of [2]the rule [PDF] as it proposed would save at least 360 lives, and reduce the severity of some 24,000 injuries, per year.
"Our proposed rule would require all cars to be able to stop and avoid contact with a vehicle in front of them up to 62 miles per hour. And the proposal would require pedestrian AEB, including requiring that AEB recognize and avoid pedestrians at night," said NHTSA chief counsel Ann Carlson. The proposed rule would require that pedestrian AEB be switched on when a vehicle speeds up beyond 37 miles per hour.
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The plan would require virtually all light vehicles of 10,000 pounds or under in the US to be equipped with AEB three years after the final rule is enacted. As the submission is just a proposal, it could take months of discussion and revision before that becomes the case and automakers are sure to have a view.
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The NHTSA said the suggested rule was written in response to provisions in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that proposed such an AEB requirement. It'll be a key part of President Biden's National Roadway Safety Strategy, which was enacted in January 2022 "to address the national crisis in traffic fatalities and serious injuries," the NHTSA said.
Yearly statistics of motor vehicle crash deaths per 100,000 people have been on a [6]gradual upward trend since bottoming out in the early 2010s at 32,479 deaths in 2011, or 10.4 per 100,000 people. Fast forward a little over a decade and there have been nearly 43,000 road fatalities (2021), raising the average per 100k to 12.9.
AEB: The next new normal in driving
There isn't really much in the way of arguments against AEB, especially from auto safety groups who've gathered data on the technology and its effectiveness. We've reached out to several automakers to get their takes - if anyone is likely to be peeved by the proposal it's them - but those that answered didn't state an opinion on the matter.
According to [7]2021 data from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety's Highway Loss Data Institute, AEB systems reduce the frequency of injury insurance claims by a full quarter, and reduce the number of police-reported front-to-rear crashes by as much as half. Rear-facing AEB is also effective, the study found, reducing collision claims by 3 percent and property damage liability by 14 percent.
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The IIHS/HLDI [9]said last year that AEB systems designed to reduce collisions with pedestrians also work well, cutting accidents by 27 percent in vehicles equipped with the technology.
[10]Cruise emits software fix after self-driving car slams into bus
[11]Tesla Semi, out since December, already facing a recall over brakes
[12]Alarming: Tesla lawsuit claims collision monitoring system is faulty
[13]US officials probe Tesla's incredible detaching steering wheel
Unfortunately, today's tech doesn't work so well at night, the IIHS and HLDI said, and the pedestrian crash risk in the dark on roads without streetlights was the same in AEB-equipped cars and those without the technology. The two groups have [14]lobbied the NHTSA to improve night pedestrian AEB, provisions for which were included in the newly proposed rule. That is to say, it should be possible to devise the technology needed to automatically brake for people in the dark, but right now, that sort of thing isn't in place, we're told.
A number of automakers have [15]already committed to making AEB standard in their newer vehicles, including Ford, Honda, Mercedes-Benz, and Dodge/Chrysler parent company Stellantis. Even more automakers, including GM, Jaguar, and Porsche, are working on full adoption of the tech for most of their vehicle fleets.
GM told us it's on the verge of surpassing its voluntary commitment to include AEB on "100 percent of electric vehicles and 98 percent of all GM models by the end of the 2023 model year." In addition, "[MY 2024] HD trucks and the Chevrolet Corvette will receive standard AEB as well," GM said.
Being practically ubiquitous already, it's the perfect time to go one low-resistance step further by mandating AEB.
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"Just as lifesaving innovations from previous generations like seat belts and air bags have helped improve safety, requiring automatic emergency braking on cars and trucks would keep all of us safer on our roads," US transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg said of the rule. ®
Get our [17]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.nhtsa.gov/press-releases/automatic-emergency-braking-proposed-rule
[2] https://www.nhtsa.gov/sites/nhtsa.gov/files/2023-05/AEB-NPRM-Web-Version-05-31-2023.pdf
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZHkU92z8aihX5Y3vemSM4wAAABc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZHkU92z8aihX5Y3vemSM4wAAABc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
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[6] https://www.iihs.org/topics/fatality-statistics/detail/yearly-snapshot
[7] https://www.jdpower.com/automotive-news/report-automatic-emergency-braking-systems-save-lives-save-money
[8] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZHkU92z8aihX5Y3vemSM4wAAABc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[9] https://www.iihs.org/news/detail/pedestrian-crash-avoidance-systems-cut-crashes--but-not-in-the-dark
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2023/04/10/cruise_software_update/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2023/04/03/the_tesla_semi_out_since/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2023/03/17/tesla_sued_over_faulty_collision/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2023/03/09/nhtsa_launches_new_tesla_investigation/
[14] https://collisionweek.com/2022/03/28/iihs-hldi-call-regulators-require-pedestrian-aeb-works-dark/
[15] https://www.cars.com/articles/iihs-confirms-3-more-automakers-make-automatic-emergency-braking-standard-460138/
[16] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZHkU92z8aihX5Y3vemSM4wAAABc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[17] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Cars kill about the same number as guns
In the USA [1]about 12 per 100,000 but they do not seem able (or willing) to control deaths due to guns - which should be an easier problem.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_firearm-related_death_rate
Re: Cars kill about the same number as guns
UK gun deaths are consistantly around fiftieth of the US rate, which seems odd when the yanks get 2 free guns with every box of cornflakes and we ban everything including pepper spray. Anyone know why?
Re: Cars kill about the same number as guns
I'm generally in favor of gun control, combined with crime control. However, I am disappointed that distracted driving, which kills about 3K while injuring 100K per year, receives so little attention while all it takes is awareness and willingness to concentrate on driving. I see people all the time driving while looking down. Never seen a protest about, it's almost never in the news.
Re: Cars kill about the same number as guns
Guns are their only defence against the dangerous Kinder Surprise
And if the car behind you hasn't got ABS ?
#jujstsaying
Re: And if the car behind you hasn't got ABS? (sucks to be their insurance company)
Rear collisions tend to do less damage than frontals, and they shouldn't normally be following that close, but that will be faint solace if you get hit by a dump truck. So there are certainly a few angles there.
Phantom Braking claims will of course skyrocket.
Unintended consequences
There's an unintended consequence to these automatic collision avoidance mechanisms and that's when someone cuts too close in front of a vehicle that's equipped with it, it can cause the vehicle to brake and then get hit from behind.
I haven't yet personally seen any collisions caused like this, but I have seen some near misses with following cars nearly hitting a vehicle that had been provoked into automatic braking by some idiot cutting in "hard and fast".
Re: Unintended consequences
Doesn't even need a cut-in. I was on the M6 last week, saw a sudden sea of brake lights ahead. I braked firmly, enough to come to a safe stop behind the car in front, without getting rear-ended.
As soon as I began easing off on the pedal, the asinine AEB system decided that I wasn't slowing enough and slammed the brakes on again, leaving me unable to do anything but look in the rear mirror and hope that the following driver was awake. Fortunately he was.
These systems might help drivers who are asleep at the wheel, but they are far from perfect. I'd like to turn mine off permanently, but that's not allowed. All I can do it switch them off each time I start the car.
No wonder there's such a demand for older used cars without these "aids".
Re: Unintended consequences
"All I can do it switch them off each time I start the car."
Well, you could buy a different car.
Or, since this is a tech website, strategically deploy sidecutters.
-A.
Didn't a German newspaper just get hold of some Tesla internal documents revealing many complaints about phantom braking, including resulting accidents?
How will the quality be when they are being put into low price models?
Next up, automatic contraception.
This is not the solution
The US' road fatalities figures are pretty appalling compared to other "first world" nations: substitute the nation of you choice into [1]this Wolfram Alpha query to check. This measure addresses maybe 5% of the total. Fixing the problem will require a lot more money and education (which also costs money).
[1] http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=%20us%20road%20deaths%2Fus%20population%20versus%20uk%20road%20deaths%2Fuk%20population%20time%20series
Re: This is not the solution
The US uses trucks to transport goods far more than most countries that use rail, which is probably responsible for a good chunk of that. The rest probably due to US consumers love of heavy vehicles like SUVs and pickups versus the far smaller cars common in much of the rest of the world. Heavy vehicles carry more momentum so they take longer to stop and apply more force to whatever they hit.
I don't think "education" is going to magically build millions of miles of additional rail lines or make people here stop buying SUVs.
The law of unintended consequences
And in other news, Joe Soap was mugged in identical fashion for the seventh time in three months when a kid jumped out in front of his car yet again, the AEB system braked it to a halt and the kid's mates smashed a window in with a brick.
Re: The law of unintended consequences
One wonders why this technique isn't in widespread use today. One suspects 93.7% of drivers who expressed an opinion would stop regardless of AEB...
RTFM!
I didn't even realize my car had it until it saved my front bumper when someone did an emergency stop in front of me for no reason that I could see. Scared the crap out of me, but it did make me read the manual to see what other features the car's got that I might want to enable, disable or set up.