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Government Transportation AI United States

The US Just Mandated Automated Emergency Braking Systems By 2029 (caranddriver.com) 286

Come 2029, all cars sold in the U.S. "must be able to stop and avoid contact with a vehicle in front of them at speeds up to 62 mph," reports Car and Driver.

"Additionally, the system must be able to detect pedestrians in both daylight and darkness. As a final parameter, the federal standard will require the system to apply the brakes automatically up to 90 mph when a collision is imminent, and up to 45 mph when a pedestrian is detected." Notably, the federal standardization of automated emergency braking systems includes pedestrian-identifying emergency braking, too. Once implemented, the NHTSA projects that this standard will save at least 360 lives a year and prevent at least 24,000 injuries annually. Specifically, the federal agency claims that rear-end collisions and pedestrian injuries will both go down significantly...

"Automatic emergency braking is proven to save lives and reduce serious injuries from frontal crashes, and this technology is now mature enough to require it in all new cars and light trucks. In fact, this technology is now so advanced that we're requiring these systems to be even more effective at higher speeds and to detect pedestrians," said NHTSA deputy administrator Sophie Shulman.

Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader sinij for sharing the article.
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The US Just Mandated Automated Emergency Braking Systems By 2029

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  • I'm worried that if it's braking before imminent and the car is already unstable (or you're swerving), the car suddenly braking it self could easily cause you to flip. Or at least, fuck up your steering as you're flung forward unexpectedly and already driving fast! Aren't their test subjects kind of aware and prepared, already?

    • I'm worried that if it's braking before imminent and the car is already unstable (or you're swerving), the car suddenly braking it self could easily cause you to flip.

      Nope. Firstly, if you're swerving the car won't be able to lock on to the thing in front of you and won't engage AEB. Secondly you can't flip a car by stepping on the brake no matter how hard when your wheels have already lost traction. Thirdly, this has nothing to do with swerving. You're already about to be in an accident.

      AEB is a common feature in virtually every mid and high end card sold for the past decade. It's saving far more lives than it is causing accidents. But if you're in a situation where you

    • I think you need to clarify for us what scenario you're imagining where you're driving fast and any braking will fling you forward and mess with your ability to steer, yet it's somehow still safe for you to be swerving so hard that you're in imminent danger of the car flipping if the brakes are applied.

    • I'm worried that if it's braking before imminent and the car is already unstable (or you're swerving), the car suddenly braking it self could easily cause you to flip.

      Active stability control they are mandating will have this feature will therefore also have that. In fact the NHTSA is also looking at mandating it for heavy trucks [federalregister.gov], and in the bargain also mandating stability control. I don't know if our bus actually has stability control or not, but it definitely does have ABS, and the generation of Bendix ABS used in it in 1999 was capable of doing ESC.

      Nobody is supposed to be driving on public roads such that such an event would cause an accident anyway. Even my car wit

  • by 93 Escort Wagon ( 326346 ) on Sunday May 05, 2024 @12:00AM (#64448622)

    Overall, I like the assist features on my wife's 2019 Subaru Outback. The lane assist can be handy, and the smart cruise control is great. However I've had three different occasions where it suddenly warned me a collision was imminent. In one case it was because a leafy branch was hanging a bit too low in front of the car - that I understand (and I was going really slow anyway). But the other two instances are mysteries... there was nothing there, but it suddenly told me I needed to brake to avoid a collision.

    Fortunately on this Subaru you can choose whether to enable the automatic responses, such as auto-braking or lane correction. But I'm guessing that won't be an option on the 2029 cars.

    • I have figured out that some shadows and road patches can trig the braking system.

      A side effect of the lane assist is that a lot of the 'feeling' of the road disappears and it makes it harder to find out ice on the road where just subtle changes in the feel of the car indicates bad conditions.

    • I have a 2021 Toyota and have had collision warnings for both stupid reasons (no, I am not about to crash into that parked car on the side of the road) and mysterious reasons. Although there is an option to disable them, it turns itself back on next time you start the car.

    • But the other two instances are mysteries... there was nothing there, but it suddenly told me I needed to brake to avoid a collision.

      Three or four times now my wife's CRV has behaved in a similar fashion for absolutely NO discernible reason and when there were no other vehicles even remotely close enough to be of concern. In one of the instances there wasn't another vehicle even in sight in front of or beside the car.

      I say the behaviour was 'similar' because although your wife's car merely warned you, my wife's car actually braked hard. Under less favourable conditions an accident could easily have occurred. Cruise control and all other

    • by sinij ( 911942 )
      I had similar experiences with a Toyota and false-positive collision warnings. If this was fully automated system that slammed brakes, I would have for sure ended up rear-ended.
  • No thanks. (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Valgrus Thunderaxe ( 8769977 ) on Sunday May 05, 2024 @12:01AM (#64448630)
    Glad I have both of my "forever cars". I don't want any of this in my vehicles.
    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Don't worry, the government will make it expensive to impossible to have an old school car that "just works" without 24/7 GPS monitoring, EV, or taking your ICE engine away so you have to beg and wheedle for access to a charger. With all the fanbois saying there is no choice except to buy an EV or enjoy riding a bicycle.

      California has already mandated GPS-linked speed limit governors and mandatory retrofits of those onto existing cars. It is coming.

  • ...than the detection in my present car that will, instead of applying the brakes, simply scream at me with some kind of buzzer or horn.

    I think it likely that the accident and injury rate will go up. My own car's systems get all hysterical when I'm turning left, and someone is in the right lane when I'm approaching them at normal speed, and it thinks I'm going to hit it. No, I'm about to steer left. If instead it goes jumping on the brakes, and it's a bit slick out from water in either liquid or solid

  • by teg ( 97890 ) on Sunday May 05, 2024 @01:20AM (#64448710)

    These systems have been around for a while [wikipedia.org], and research indicates they reduce rear end accidents by about 50%. [etsc.eu]

    I've had these in my cars for a decade, and I've never had the auto-brake trigger - at least not fully. I have occasionally had the car deciding to warn me that I need to take over from the adaptive cruise control when the car in front of me brakes harder than usual but that's not the same - and also appreciated.

    • by Corbets ( 169101 )

      Agreed. They’ve been in my Audis for 15 years, and the one American car (Tesla) thought I bought in that time period also had the feature, albeit that one had a phantom braking problem that the Audis did not, and I never felt quite confident in its ability to stop me in time to prevent an accident the way I did with the German cars. No real data, just feel of the system while driving.

      I find that the latest Audi is a little overly aggressive when parking near a bush - it’s come on and slammed me

    • There was a company in San Diego in the late '80s called "Radar Control Systems" that had a very reliable system that would gently warn the driver, then start yelling at him, and finally override him and hit the brakes to avoid rear-ending another vehicle or plowing into a stationary object. The company got patents on their stuff (don't know if the patents belong to the company or to one or more execs). They tried selling it to the auto companies but none wanted it. They, at some point, did a joint project

      • Was that RASHID [latimes.com] by chance? I remember a lot of people that had radar detectors whining about people using that system due to false alarms it produced. It did seem to work, and I remember hearing about people modifying systems like that so they could tailgate cars by a matter of feet and even if the car in front does a full stop, it would ensure a collision doesn't happen.

    • I've had these in my cars for a decade, and I've never had the auto-brake trigger - at least not fully.

      I've had it trigger twice. Once for something minor, reversing I didn't see post sticking out of the ground. The car stopped so suddenly I thought I hit something and when I got out and looked I saw I was just 2cm (that's less than an inch in freedom land) from a post. The other time was on a highway where the car two in front of me drifted to the shoulder and hit a stalled vehicle, and then spun into the car in front of me which ended up sideways and AEB stopped me about 10cm (less than a foot) from the hi

    • Anecdotal, but I've witnessed my dad's 2020 Ford Fusion warning system freak out at least three times while riding in his car, with absolutely nothing in front of it. The backup sensor does this literally dozens of times more often as he's backing out of parking spaces, as does my mother's Ford Ecosport (I forget what year it is, but it's newer than my dad's car). Seriously, the backup sensors on both these cars are way, way too sensitive.

      People say there's lots of hard evidence that these perimeter detec

    • by sinij ( 911942 )

      These systems have been around for a while [wikipedia.org], and research indicates they reduce rear end accidents by about 50%. [etsc.eu]

      If you are citing benefits, you also need to consider costs. How much does it cost per vehicle to implement such system, including both upfront costs and repairs?

      We already have insurance cost increasing across the board because previously trivial accidents, like cracked windshield or damaged bumper now result in thousands of dollars to repair due to sensors and calibration needed.

  • With this additional mandated nanny state software and hardware, will insurance rates go down because of supposed fewer accidents and/or injuries? Nope. Because insurance companies will keep their rates high to pad their bottom line.

    Any time something like this is mandated there should be a mandated reduction in insurance rates for anyone who has it. For something big like this, a twenty percent reduction should be standard. After all, if this increases safety insurance companies won't be paying out as

  • And it's only an alarm. Threshold to apply brakes is higher than the threshold to sound an audible alarm. The owner's manual is helpfully vague about what those actual thresholds are.

    My prediction is that it's even odds if those 360 hypothetical lives saved and 24k injuries prevented per year will be outweighed by lives lost and injuries sustained from poorly designed or malfunctioning systems putting the brakes on for no reason at highway speeds.

    • by sinij ( 911942 )
      I was able to reduce false alarms by reducing system sensitivity. It was hidden deep into dash menus.
  • by sinij ( 911942 ) on Sunday May 05, 2024 @08:10AM (#64449082)
    Did anyone performed basic cost/benefit analysis on this? TFA states this technology would save 360 lives a year out of 335 mil US pop. The cost of this system is at a low end 1K as you require forward-facing sensors, control module, wiring harness, brake by wire, etc. There are about 286 million car in US, times 1K per car would result in $286,000,000,000 cost of the mandate once fully implemented. While it is hard to predict future, lets say a car made today would last 15 years. So 360 lives per year, 15 years means that this program costs $52,962,962 per life saved.
  • If the driver can't override it the bad guys can use this to capture your vehicle.

  • If it does it could be a good thing.

    I hope they test it that way. In Australia they will want to test it on kangaroos.

  • by dwater ( 72834 ) on Sunday May 05, 2024 @09:14AM (#64449190)

    Maybe - how can you ever be 100% sure?

    I was crossing a road in Beijing and a tesla y turning left appeared to be slowing to let pedestrians cross. I was one such pedestrian. I took the hint and continued to cross in front of it, but as I did so, it started to move forward and would surely have hit my legs. I jumped a little and turned to look and saw that the driver was using her phone and was visibly shocked that the car had stopped so suddenly. I suspect she had attempted to accelerate without looking properly (or at all?).
    Anyway, the abruptness of the stop and the shock of the driver, made me think that the tesla stopped automatically.

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