Hundreds of deaths and tens of thousands of injuries are to be prevented by automatic emergency braking, which in the US will be mandatory in new cars up to 4.5 tons from September 2029. In Europe, cars must have it from July 2022.
The safety regulations of the United States are slightly ahead of Europe, for example a third brake light has been mandatory there since 1986 and a reversing camera since 2018. One system which is mandatory in Europe for newly homologated cars from July 2022 and in reality most cars were equipped many years before, but in the USA it will be a mandated standard only from September 2029.
This is automatic emergency braking, i.e. a system that stops the vehicle in the event of an imminent collision or at least significantly slows down the vehicle, thus preventing the collision or at least significantly mitigating its consequences. In one breath, it should be added that this system is a common part of cars in the US today, similarly to Europe; the legislation there is “just” catching up with the real state of most of the new car world.
The system will have to be able to avoid a collision with the vehicle in front up to a driving speed of 62 mph (100 km/h). It will have to detect pedestrians in daylight and at night and will have to be active, i.e. capable of automatically braking, up to 90 mph (145 km/h) when a collision with a vehicle is imminent and up to 45 mph (72 km/h) when collision with a pedestrian.
Automatic emergency braking will be mandatory for the light vehicle category, which in the US is all vehicles up to 10,000 pounds (4,536 kg). The introduction of the new rule is part of the Federal Vehicle Safety Standard No. 127, and according to NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration), its mandatory installation will save at least 360 lives and prevent at least 24 thousand injuries per year.
