The feds are pushing back against automakers’ objections to mandatory automatic emergency braking

Every new car sold in the United States will be equipped with Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB). until 2029 after all. Automakers opposed the rule soon after it was announced, but the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) brushed off the complaints.

Updated in April 2024the law gives major automakers until 2029 to install an AEB system in every car and truck sold new. The system must be able to automatically stop the vehicle to avoid a collision at speeds up to 62 mph. It must also brake to avoid a collision with a pedestrian at speeds up to 45 mph, and brake to avoid a collision with another car (or at least soften the impact) at speeds up to 90 mph. None of this is new: many cars are already available with AEB, which relies on an armada of sensors and cameras to scan the road and react accordingly.

AEB was mandatory in Europe from 2022however, the Alliance for Automotive Innovation has told NHTSA that this cannot be done in the United States. A trade group representing, among others, car manufacturers General Motors Company and Volkswagensays he is not opposed to AEB; this is against the laws of speed thresholds.

“It’s almost impossible with the technology available,” asserted the group’s president and CEO John Bozella in letter addressed lawmakers in June 2024. “At higher speeds, NHTSA’s stringent requirements will cause AEB-equipped vehicles to automatically brake much earlier than normal drivers and others on the road expect. This is likely to contribute to an increase in rear-end collisions,” Bazella’s letter added. The group also believes that NHTSA “grossly underestimated” the cost of implementing such an advanced AEB system that would be passed on to consumers.

Instead of repealing the law entirely, the Alliance for Automotive Innovation suggests looking across the pond for guidance.

“We recommended that NHTSA adopt a standard already in place in Europe that detects a potential frontal collision, provides a warning to the driver, and automatically engages the braking system to avoid or mitigate the severity of the collision by leveraging existing crashworthiness systems designed to improve the protection of road users movement,” the letter says. NHTSA officials seemed to get it, read it, shrug it off, and say, “Bad luck, guys.”

The agency, which says its standards could save at least 360 lives a year and prevent at least 24,000 injuries each year, said it is not changing its mind, reports Reuters. He plans to clarify “some technical requirements” in the near future, although he did not specify what those are.

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