It's official: Auto braking can save lives
Autonomous Emergency Braking is not yet generally widespread, but it could become a mandatory part of ANCAP's safety rating systemMercedes-Benz introduced it with the CL in 2007, but Volvo brought its City Safety technology to the mass market: Now it has the approval of respected world safety bodies.
Research by organisations such as Euro NCAP and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) in the USA has pointed to Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB) as a real force in potentially reducing nose-to-tail accidents. According to Euro NCAP, the system could reduce crashes by as much as 27 per cent – a figure backed by research in the USA, where the IIHS has shown that insurance claims on cars fitted with AEB have already been reduced by 14 per cent.
According to the Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP), Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB) could prove to be the next major step after seatbelts and electronic stability control (ESC) to contribute significantly towards safer cars and a fifty per cent reduction in the current rate of road deaths by 2020.
ANCAP Chief Executive Officer Mr. Nicholas Clarke said, “With the swift adoption of new technology like AEB, there is a real prospect that the road toll could be cut in half by 2020. In Europe, AEB is not restricted to higher priced models only, so we are hoping for early installation of AEB across the model range in Australia and New Zealand. Advanced safety assist technology can help remove the weakest link when it comes to car crashes; the driver.”
AEB, which is able to step in ahead of the driver to brake the car in an impending emergency situation, was introduced on Volvo’s XC60 SUV in 2008, ahead of similar systems now used by other prestige car-makers including BMW and Mercedes-Benz.
The system employs forward-looking radar and video cameras to watch the road ahead and is able to avoid nose-to-tail crashes altogether or at least limit their severity.
Indications are it will become a major part of ANCAP’s safety rating system: According to a recent press release, AEB is currently an optional safety assist technology (SAT) under the recently published 2017 ANCAP rating roadmap, and is being assessed with a view to mounting a case for it to become mandatory.
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