Three more automakers have fulfilled a voluntary pledge to equip nearly all the light vehicles they produce for the U.S. market with automatic emergency braking (AEB).
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Mitsubishi, Nissan/Infiniti and Stellantis installed AEB on more than 95 percent of the vehicles they produced between September 1, 2021, and August 31, 2022, joining 12 automakers that fulfilled the voluntary commitment in previous years, Insurance Institute for Highway Safety said.
Stellantis, which equipped only 43 percent of its vehicles with AEB in 2021, made the most progress.
“With Stellantis dramatically boosting the percentage of vehicles it equips with AEB, there’s been another big jump in the number of affordable cars and SUVs with this important safety feature,†IIHS President David Harkey said. “General Motors and Porsche also made substantial progress toward the goal.â€
To fulfill their commitment, manufacturers must attest that the AEB system on their vehicles meets certain performance standards.
The forward collision warning feature must meet a subset of NHTSA’s current 5-Star Safety Ratings program requirements on the timing of driver alerts.
The AEB must earn at least an advanced rating in the IIHS vehicle-to-vehicle front crash prevention evaluation. To earn that rating, the system must slow the vehicle by at least 10 mph in either the 12 or 25 mph test or 5 mph in both of the tests.
Along with the pledge to equip light-duty vehicles with AEB, automakers committed to installing the technology on vehicles with a gross vehicle weight rating of 8,501-10,000 pounds on a slightly longer timeline, by the production year that begins September 1, 2025.
Five automakers reported producing vehicles in that range for the U.S. market in the most recent year.
Among them, Nissan reported all were equipped with AEB, Ford 76 percent and Stellantis 34 percent. Mercedes-Benz reported that none of its heavier vehicles were equipped with AEB, and General Motors did not report a percentage of equipped vehicles in this weight class.
The deadline for light-duty vehicles with manual transmissions is the production year that begins Sept. 1, 2024.
IIHS expects the voluntary commitment to prevent 42,000 crashes and 20,000 injuries by 2025. The estimate is based on IIHS research that found that front crash prevention systems with both forward collision warning and automatic emergency braking cut rear-end crashes by half. ■