National Traffic Safety Board (NTSB) Chair Jennifer Homendy released the following statement in response to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) recent announcement of a new federal motor vehicle safety standard requiring all new passenger cars and light trucks to have automatic emergency braking (AEB) and pedestrian AEB (PAEB) systems:
“This new vehicle safety standard is a critical moment in highway safety, and we commend NHTSA on this important step forward. Countless NTSB research studies and crash investigations show that automatic emergency braking can save lives. That’s why, for nearly three decades, the NTSB has advocated for collision avoidance technologies to be mandatory in all vehicles.
“While this new standard will not go into effect until 2029, we encourage manufacturers not to wait; they should meet these life-saving requirements now.
“We will continue to advocate for the expansion of AEB capability requirements to also detect and respond to motorcyclists, bicyclists and roadside hazards, and for NHTSA to finalize their rule with FMCSA on AEB in commercial vehicles. Without these steps, we cannot keep all road users safe from harm.”
The NTSB is evaluating NHTSA’s final rule to determine which of its recommendations might be satisfied by this action. The NTSB first recommended collision avoidance technology — specifically forward collision warning systems— as a possible solution to rear-end crashes in 1995. The NTSB also published two special investigative reports on rear-end crashes in 2001 and in 2015.
