In early September, the US Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) announced that ten vehicle manufacturers had agreed to make automatic emergency braking (AEB) systems a standard feature on cars sold in the US in the relatively near future. The announcement was notable due to its implications for vehicle safety, but also because it involved a voluntary commitment to make a new safety technology standard without a regulatory mandate.
AEB systems use sensors, radar, cameras, or lasers to detect an imminent crash and, if the driver does not do so, automatically engage the brakes. NHTSA and the IIHS said in their announcement that AEB systems can have a notable impact in reducing vehicle crashes, especially rear-end collisions that involve driver error. The IIHS also noted that AEB systems reduce insurance injury claims by as much as 35%.
AEB systems are currently installed as standard equipment on only 1% of cars sold in the US, although they are available as an option on other models. The ten companies that signed on to the commitment – Audi, BMW, Ford, General Motors, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, Tesla, Toyota, Volkswagen, and Volvo – will work with NHTSA and the IIHS to develop a timeline and performance standards for installing AEB systems as standard equipment on their vehicles. The ten vehicle manufacturers represented 57% of US light-vehicle sales last year, according to NHTSA.
NHTSA has been exploring how to expand the availability of AEB systems for some time. The agency has been under pressure from safety groups and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) to mandate the use of collision-avoidance technologies such as AEB to reduce rear-end collisions. In May 2015, the NTSB recommended that manufacturers install forward collision-avoidance systems as standard features on all new passenger and commercial vehicles, for example, and that NHTSA take several steps to expand the availability of such systems.
The agreement announced in September makes it clear that NHTSA (and IIHS) decided that a voluntary industry commitment, rather than a formal rulemaking, offers the fastest approach to getting AEB offered as standard equipment on vehicles in the US. The process of writing and finalising a federal motor vehicle safety standard can take years, and an AEB mandate likely would not take effect for at least seven or eight years. NHTSA concluded that a voluntary agreement could have an impact much sooner. “The only reason to do this is if it goes faster” than writing a regulation, NHTSA Administrator Mark Rosekind said earlier this year. The agency has not set a specific timeline for implementing the voluntary agreement, however, so it is not yet clear when the OEMs intend to meet their commitment.
NHTSA is taking other steps to expand the availability of AEB systems. In January, the agency requested comments on a proposal to include AEB as a recommended safety technology in its “five-star” New Car Assessment Program (NCAP) beginning with model year (MY) 2018. The agency announced in early November that it was in fact doing so, pointing to two AEB technologies: crash imminent braking, which applies the brakes to avoid an imminent rear-end collision if the driver is not doing so, and dynamic brake support, which provides supplemental braking if the driver is not braking enough to avoid a rear-end collision.
AEB systems that meet NHTSA’s performance specifications will be added to the NCAP list of recommended safety technologies, which also includes forward collision warning, lane departure warning, and rearview video systems. (NHTSA will remove rearview video systems as a recommended safety technology in MY 2019 since those systems will be required on all new vehicles manufactured on or after 1 May 2018.)
NHTSA and the IIHS are now calling on other vehicle manufacturers to commit to making AEB systems standard equipment in their vehicles. NHTSA is reportedly also talking to the truck industry, calling for AEB to be made standard equipment on new trucks. In October, the board of the American Trucking Associations called on vehicle manufacturers to equip all new vehicles sold in the US, including trucks, with AEB systems. NHTSA is reportedly considering whether a voluntary or regulatory approach would speed adoption of such systems in the truck market.
These steps to expand the use of AEB technologies are illustrative of one approach NHTSA could take in regulating safety during an era of rapidly changing vehicle technologies. OEMs, component suppliers, and information technology companies are actively developing new products, especially in the areas of vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communications technology. Regulators like NHTSA face a challenge in crafting rules to protect highway safety in an era of rapid technological change.
NHTSA opted in the case of AEB for a voluntary commitment by vehicle manufacturers to equip vehicles with AEB systems that meet performance standards, combined with informing consumer choice through NCAP. Some critics disagree with this approach, arguing that OEMs should be required through a formal regulation to install AEB as standard equipment. NHTSA could still choose to write a regulation at a later date, of course. Electronic stability control and now rearview video systems, for example, have moved from NCAP recommended technologies to regulatory mandates.
NHTSA is certain to face many more decisions about how best to ensure that increasingly automated vehicles are safe, and the agency will not always opt for the voluntary approach used in the case of AEB. NHTSA is crafting a rule to mandate transmitters for V2V communications in all new cars, for example, which will help open the door to a new world of vehicle automation.
NHTSA is likely to explore other regulatory approaches as it grapples in the years ahead with rapid changes in active safety systems and semi-autonomous vehicle technologies – and potentially with the development of fully autonomous vehicles.
