Yahoo Autos Government pushes autonomous braking technology
Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx announced yesterday that the government will be adding two high-tech braking technologies to the list of safety gear it recommends to car shoppers: crash-imminent braking (CIB), also known as autobrake or autonomous braking; and dynamic brake support (DBS), a smart brake assist.
In a report released last August, NHTSA researchers estimated that if those two braking systems were on all cars they would prevent 4,000 serious injuries and save 100 lives per year.
At this stage the presence or absence of advanced technologies doesn’t affect a car’s safety ratings from NHTSA. That could change in the future.
Other recommended technologies were already featured in NHTSA’s 5-Star safety ratings on the safercar.gov site, including forward-collision warning (FCW), lane-departure warning (LDW), and rearview video systems.
The automatic braking technologies are usually add-ons to a radar or radar-and-camera-based forward-collision warning system that monitors the distance between your car and the one ahead. If the system calculates that the distance is closing too quickly, it will send out warnings such as audible or visual cues. If the driver doesn’t respond, the car will automatically apply brakes, either partially or with full force. The warning and automatic response can prevent a crash or at least mitigate the damage if the crash is unavoidable. The brake-assist system charges the brakes and readies them for immediate action if panic braking is needed.
See our list of advanced safety features by car brand.
It’s good that NHTSA has added these increasingly widespread features to its list of recommended advanced technologies. And NHTSA says it plans to add even more safety technologies to its rating system. We welcome that.
Meanwhile, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) recently elevated the importance of autobrake systems in its own ratings. IIHS actually field-tests these systems and evaluates their effectiveness. In order to earn IIHS’s highest safety accolade, called Top Safety Pick Plus, 2015 models have to ave an autobrake feature and it has to work well. That’s in addition to good performance in a suite of IIHS crash tests.
Consequently, the cars that earn the coveted Top Safety Pick Plus designation can be easily identified and considered safer than their peers. To complete their safety research, car shoppers should also check the dynamic performance in Consumer Reports tests, including wet and dry braking and the accident avoidance maneuver.
