A number of cars being sold today already have forward-collision warning and automatic emergency braking as available optional safety features, but automakers and federal regulators have reached a deal that will make these features standard in almost every car sold in the U.S. by 2022.
Numerous media outlets, including our colleagues at Consumer Reports, are reporting that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration will announce tomorrow that it has reached an agreement with car manufacturers to put these features in almost all the cars they make starting with 2022. That timeline will be extended for all manual transmission vehicles, along with some heavier (more than 8,500 pounds) pickup trucks and SUVs. Commercial trucks are not yet part of the agreement.
The Detroit News names Ford, Fiat Chrysler, General Motors, Hyundai, and Toyota among the manufacturers that have agreed to the timeline.
The six-year time window to implement the new safety features is intended to give automakers ample time to adjust their manufacturing and design processes to include the automatic braking on all their vehicles. Some car models that go into redesign earlier than 2022 will see these features being standard ahead of that date.
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety — the organization that gets to slam cars into walls for science — says that vehicles equipped with forward-collision warning and automatic braking see incidents of rear-end collisions reduced by 40%, with bodily injury claims cut by 30%.
“The announcement lays the groundwork for these life-saving systems to be standard on all new vehicles,” said William Wallace, policy analyst for Consumers Union. “Consumers deserve the protection that these technologies provide, and they should have them in their cars as soon as possible. We urge manufacturers to swiftly roll out these systems across all models and trim levels earlier than 2022, and we support NHTSA’s intention to set mandatory rules if automakers drag their feet.”
by Chris Morran via Consumerist
No comments:
Post a Comment