Three years ahead of a 2022 deadline, the number of automakers equipping all of their cars and SUVs with the advanced safety feature automatic emergency braking (AEB) continues to grow.
Audi and Volvo equipped virtually all the light vehicles they produced for the U.S. market with the life-saving technology in the 2019 model year, according to manufacturer reports. Mercedes-Benz and Tesla hit the target last year. That's one-fifth of the automakers who have pledged to put the feature on all of their models in the U.S.
The tallies are submitted annually by automakers as part of a voluntary commitment from 20 manufacturers to equip all but the heaviest passenger vehicles with the crash avoidance technology by September 2022. The commitment was brokered in 2015 by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).
Despite the overall progress, several automakers have work to do if they're going to meet the deadline. Fiat Chrysler, General Motors, Jaguar Land Rover, and Mitsubishi are now equipping fewer than one-third of vehicles they produce with AEB.
"While some manufacturers have already met the target and most others have really stepped up their efforts, others are letting their customers down," says David Friedman, vice president of advocacy at Consumer Reports. "If these automakers continue to lag behind, it will signal the need for mandatory standards."
As part of the arrangement, Consumer Reports agreed to monitor industry compliance.
CR believes that all models should come standard with AEB with pedestrian detection, forward collision warning (FCW), and blind spot warning (BSW). CR-recommended vehicles must have AEB with pedestrian detection and FCW standard on all trim levels.
Lives Saved
IIHS estimates that the commitment will prevent 42,000 crashes and 20,000 injuries by 2025. Frontal-crash prevention systems that include both FCW and AEB reduce rear-end crashes by half, IIHS research indicates.
The auto industry reports show that more than 9 million vehicles were equipped with AEB during this reporting period, about 30 percent more than in the previous year. Data gathered by Consumer Reports indicates that many automakers are on track to do even better next year as they expand the number of models with AEB as standard equipment, which means it comes on all trim levels.
"The idea of this voluntary commitment was to get this important safety breakthrough into vehicles as fast as possible, so it's encouraging that some automakers are beating the deadline," says David Zuby, chief research officer at IIHS, the Virginia-based research institute known for its crash-test and ratings program.
