FULL BRAKES AHEAD
HOW AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING SYSTEMS ARE SHIFTING GEARS IN ROAD SAFETY
Story by Sarah Perkins
From electric powertrains to selfhealing coatings, advances in modern vehicle tech are such that even the Jetsons would do a double take. While today’s vehicles can’t fly—although, you can look it up and you’ll see that some are working on soaring ahead—current efforts are being made to enhance their safety on the road in the form of automatic emergency braking (AEB) systems.
According to a recent report from the American Automobile Association (AAA) “automatic emergency braking is an advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) that utilizes sensors to detect imminent forward collisions with vehicles or other obstacles. When a potential collision is identified, and driver response is deemed insufficient, AEB systems automatically apply braking pressure to slow the vehicle or bring it to a complete stop, mitigating the severity of the impact or potentially avoiding the collision altogether.”
The report continues that as of 2023, AEB systems are now present in 89 percent of all new vehicles sold, and this number is set to rapidly increase as the United States Department of Transportation (USDOT), the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) has outlined that all vehicles sold in the United States in 2029 must include some form of automatic emergency braking.
As released this April in the document Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) No. 127, this new standard requires all cars be able to stop and avoid contact with a vehicle in front of them up to 62 miles (100 kilometers) and that the systems must detect pedestrians in both daylight and darkness. In addition, the standard requires that the system apply the brakes automatically up to 90 miles per hour (145 kilometers per hour) when a collision with a lead vehicle is imminent, and up to 45 miles per hour (72 kilometers per hour) when a pedestrian is detected.
Furthermore, this new standard is expected to save at least 360 lives and prevent more than 24,000 injuries annually.
While studies by the NHTSA indicate that AEB technologies can lower rear-end collisions by up to 49 percent, AAA’s recent report specifically aimed to determine the performance of older generation tech in comparison to the current generation to see how far automatic braking has to go before it stops at the 2029 finish line.
PROGRESSION SESSION
In order to evaluate the progression of automatic braking technology between older and newer vehicle models, AAA specifically conducted its primary research in a closedcourse simulated environment using vehicles from 2017, 2018 and 2024. All testing focused on preventing forward-motion, rear-end collisions with a stationary vehicle at various speeds under identical test conditions.
The technology systems have commonly relied on front-mounted, forward-looking vision systems; however the industry has more recently begun to shift towards the deployment of a dual sensor approach, using radar and camera to continuously monitor the road ahead and assess potential hazards. The data is gathered and subsequently processed by an onboard computer, which triggers automatic intervention when specific risk parameters are met, the report further notes.
When looking at the difference in performance between older and newer vehicle models, AAA’s data shows that 2024 vehicle models were nearly twice as likely to avoid a collision as 2017 and 2018 models when tested at speeds up to 35 miles per hour (56 km/h).
Moreover, early model vehicles avoided collisions 51 percent of the time compared to 100 percent for the late model vehicles. It was at slower test speeds of 12 miles per hour (19 kilometers per hour) that the early model vehicles were able to perform well, avoiding 73 percent of collisions. When evaluated at slightly higher test speeds, this collision avoidance performance dropped to 47 percent at 25 miles per hour (40 km/h) and 33 percent at 56 km/h. However, none of the vehicles tested could avoid a collision at speeds higher than 55 miles per hour (88 km/h). Here, vehicles tested from all model years experienced either an aborted test run due to vehicle performance or an impact with the softcar target vehicle used as stand-in for a static passenger vehicle.
The AAA concludes that “as vehicles deploy more advanced electrical and electronic architecture that includes edge node software abstraction into centralized high-performance computers, advancements in machine learning and artificial intelligence will allow AEB systems to detect objects and classify them more effectively in real time. This could enable AEB to tailor braking responses to specific situations based on environmental context, vehicle type and vulnerable road users (VRUs) such as pedestrians and cyclists.”
However, despite this potential, the AAA also reminds that “while there have been notable improvements in AEB systems over the last few years, drivers should not rely solely on this technology to avoid collisions or expect the vehicle to always brake in the event of a crash. External factors such as vehicle condition, road type and ambient weather can all significantly impact the functionality of these systems.”
CANADIAN CONSIDERATIONS
With the United States turning its attention to the horizons of 2029, the question remains, where does Canada sit on the issue of mandatory AEB systems? According to an August bulletin from Transport Canada, the Government of Canada has “been studying automatic emergency braking for several years now. The results of this work show that the system slows a vehicle before a collision and helps keep drivers and passengers safe. Our research is consistent with other studies that have found that vehicles with AEB systems are involved in fewer rear-end collisions. Reducing the speed of collisions can also help reduce injuries for vulnerable road users, like pedestrians and cyclists.” The bulletin continues that “there’s no guarantee that an automatic emergency braking system will always intervene. Some types of weather, like snow or rain, could keep the system from detecting an obstacle. Even the sun being low in the sky could affect how it operates.” As a result, “automatic emergency braking isn’t required on new vehicles in Canada, but some manufacturers include it as a standard or as an optional feature on some models.”
Transport Canada concluded that if the country were to move forward with a mandatory adoption, Canadian requirements for pedestrian detection would first have to be developed. In this way, while advancements in AEB systems are promising, they also underscore a broader responsibility for both drivers and manufacturers. As these technologies become increasingly sophisticated, there must also be an emphasis on public education regarding their capabilities and limitations. Drivers should remain vigilant and not view AEB as a substitute for attentive driving. The potential benefits are significant, but the technology is still evolving.
However, with the continued rise and demand for increasingly technological systems in automotive manufacturing, as governments, manufacturers and collision repairers navigate the changing horizons, one thing remains certain: the pursuit of safer roads is a shared goal that transcends borders, and every step towards innovation is a step towards saving lives.
