On March 18, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) along with the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) announced an agreement with all major auto manufacturers to have automatic braking installed on all new vehicles within 6 years. Automatic emergency braking (AEB) can cut rear end crashes by as much as 40% according to an IIHS study.
AEB uses cameras and forward looking radar to see the road ahead and when an obstacle is detected and the driver doesn’t brake in time, the brakes are applied automatically. AEB is already available on quite a few vehicles including Subaru, Volvo, Nissan, Honda and more.
Many auto makers are striving to build vehicles that drive themselves under normal conditions and automatic braking is one aspect of this, along with automatic steering and adaptive cruise control. A few years ago, it was predicted that autonomous driving was at least 10 years away, but at least one model is available now, according to a story in the Wall Street Journal on March 14. It isn’t a high end model either, but a Honda Civic that goes for less than $21,000. According to the author the Civic drove most of a 25 mile drive in Detroit without the driver’s hands on the wheel or foot on the brake or gas.
Unlike hybrids and smaller cars that have high fuel economy, but aren’t selling very well, consumers are eager to pay for advanced driver assist systems like automatic emergency braking, adaptive cruise control, lane departure warning and blind spot detection. Because of this demand, I believe automatic emergency braking will be in most vehicles much sooner than six years.
Because Addison Auto is a body and mechanical shop, we are well prepared to repair and calibrate all these advanced systems.
