New technology designed to keep people safe in the car could now become a requirement.
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Automatic braking technology is already in some vehicles, but now the U.S. Government wants to expand it.
Many have started the debate over how well emergency braking features work.
Amy Cohen has suffered the ultimate loss. Her son Sammy was walking to soccer practice when he was hit and killed by a car.
“His death was preventable...He should be turning 23 years old this year,” Cohen said.
She believes that automatic emergency braking (AEB) could have prevented the death of her son.
“There is no reason that it shouldn’t be standard in all vehicles,” Cohen said.
Leaders at the Department of Transportation agree.
“This proposed rulemaking is urgently needed,” Department of Transportation Deputy Secretary Polly Trottenberg said.
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Earlier this year, the department announced the potential to propose a rule that would require automatic emergency braking on passenger cars and light trucks. This could start in three to four years.
The technology is designed so a car will avoid hitting another vehicle or a pedestrian if the driver hasn’t taken any action.
“We believe these standards will maximize the lifesaving potential of these technologies,” Trottenberg said.
Some questions on how reliable the technology really is have come up.
Last year, Atlanta drivers said their automatic braking technology kicked in when it shouldn’t have.
“It felt like...Oh my God...That’s how you feel...Like...Oh my God and then you start to look to see if anyone is around you,” one woman said.
Despite sounding the alarm, there’s no fix yet leading the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to start an investigation.
AAA has also raised safety questions about using the technology when people need it most.
They provided videos of them testing AEB on vehicles in many different scenarios.
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First, they found at 30 MPH, AEB prevented 85% of rear-end crashes.
At 40 MPH, the technology only prevented 30% of the crashes.
Their concern is that they found the emergency braking failed to avoid a T-bone crash every time.
When they had a car turn left at an intersection, it would not stop or alert the driver about a potential crash.
AAA Director of Automotive Engineering Greg Brannon has studied the issue extensively and he told News Center 7 that they applaud the proposal for more AEB, but it needs to work better at intersections.
“We found that the systems don’t work in that situation at all,” Brannon said.
Department of Transportation officials were asked if they would prompt automakers to do even more to make sure the technology works when it is supposed to.
“The agency is closely monitoring the development of automatic braking to mitigate any risk of crashes beyond the changes they’re already proposing,” a spokesperson from the Department of Transportation said.
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