Automatic emergency braking and forward-collision warning systems will become standard across 10 automakers’ lineups within the next few years. Audi, BMW, Ford, General Motors, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, Tesla, Toyota, Volkswagen, and Volvo have signed a gentleman’s agreement to make the features standard on all of their cars in the U.S.
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The announcement comes from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which in February said it would try to test and rate auto-braking systems, and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, the insurance-funded group that has tested and rated them for the past two years. Exact details and timing are still to come.
-Right now, Volvo is the only automaker with automatic-braking standard on every car. In 2007, it was the first company to introduce full auto-braking (i.e. able to bring the car to a complete stop). Honda was first to market four years earlier, but its system was relegated to Japan and could only reduce the vehicle’s speed.
-In the past three years, sensor prices have been dropping dramatically, and more popularly priced vehicles, such as the Subaru Legacy and the Honda Accord, have been adopting automatic-braking. Interestingly, Subaru and Honda are not part of the agreement.
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Today, every automaker specifies a unique threshold defining when it activates collision alerts and when it jams on the brakes. Those thresholds, the amount of braking force applied, and the choice and location of the sensors (some of which can be compromised by poor weather) dictate how well these systems perform (or don’t). Some auto-braking systems recognize people, cyclists, and animals, but others only detect cars. The Society of Automotive Engineers and NHTSA have not set minimum standards or recommended practices. What’s also missing is any voice from the two major U.S. auto lobbies that represent most manufacturers, the Association of Global Automakers and the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers.
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- Driving In a Fake Swedish Town: Testing Autonomous Braking Systems
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- NHTSA Wants to Rate Automatic-Braking Systems
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- Stop Is Cheap: Toyota to Offer Low-Cost Accident-Avoidance Tech
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While auto-braking systems and their collision warnings aren’t fail-safe—they’ve falsely warned us we’re about to crash when we’re merely going around turns—when they work, they really work. One important side note, which the IIHS has admitted: If automakers mount these sensors on grilles where they’re easily damaged, insurance costs for these models may go up in the short term. But if this technology proliferates, it’s bound to lower the number of aggravating people who rear-end you because they’re distracted by their phones—and thereby should lower insurance costs in the long run.
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from Car and Driver Blog http://ift.tt/1OjOF7z
via Agya
