US Vehicles Required To Carry Better Automatic Braking in 5 Years

U.S. vehicles will be required to carry better automatic braking by September 2029, according to a new regulation released by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

Per NPR, the final version of the regulation was unveiled on Monday, April 29, and requires cars to automatically stop to avoid collisions with pedestrians and other vehicles, regardless of the time of day or night.

“The new vehicle safety standards we finalized today will save hundreds of lives and prevent tens of thousands of injuries every year,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg stated in the announcement. “The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is not only making historic investments in transportation, it’s also ushering in a new era of safer travel by ensuring new cars and light trucks are equipped with automatic emergency braking, making our roads safer for drivers and pedestrians alike.”

Prior to the unveiling of this new regulation, approximately 90% of all new U.S. vehicles already had the automatic braking standard under a voluntary agreement with automakers. However, there were no performance requirements.

That, however, has now changed. Within five years, all systems are required to be updated for optimal performance. Optimizations will include better software with superior engineering and possibly a radar system.

But the NHTSA also noted that these optimizations will drive up the prices of U.S. vehicles by about “$354 million per year in 2020 dollars, or $82 per vehicle.”

Buttigieg said that the NHTSA created these new regulations to both prevent rear-end and pedestrian collisions and reduce the 40,000 traffic deaths that occur per year. Specifically, he stated that he expects the new regulations to save at least 360 lives and prevent around 24,000 injuries each year.

“We’re living through a crisis in roadway deaths,” Buttigieg said. “So we need to do something about it.”

The NHTSA has been stepping up its efforts to ensure the safety of U.S. vehicles.

As previously reported, the government agency recently opened up another investigation into Tesla Autopilot in an effort to ascertain whether the company’s latest software update adequately safeguards drivers’ safety. Despite closing the initial prolonged inquiry, the NHTSA has now launched a new probe to evaluate Tesla’s corrective measures after recalling over 2 million vehicles last December and issuing a software update.