autoevolution
 

Automatic Emergency Braking Features Are the New Sweethearts of the NHTSA's NCAP

The New Car Assessment Program of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration isn’t without faults. In an ever-changing automotive landscape, the North American automotive safety watchdog announced that it’s planning to add two automatic emergency braking systems to recommended (not mandatory) advanced vehicle technology features.
Volvo Automatic Emergency Braking 1 photo
Photo: Volvo
Starting with the NHTSA’s recommended safety features, those two automatic emergency braking systems can be summed up as follows: dynamic brake support (DIB) and crash imminent braking (CIB).

The first applies a little more braking force if the driver doesn’t brake enough in an accident situation, while the second slows the car down when the front sensors compute a crash scenario.

Yup, summing things up again, that’s pretty much what any modern AEB system does.

Compared to the NHTSA’s rather late change of heart, AEB is a mandatory feature to pick up the IIHS’ desirable Top Safety Pick+ rating, as well as scoring 5 stars in the Euro NCAP testing program.

These AEB systems, along with promising innovations such as vehicle-to-vehicle communications (V2V) and automated vehicle technologies hold promise to save even more lives and prevent fatal crashes.

According to data sourced by the NHTSA, one-third of all police-reported vehicle crashes in 2013 involved a rear-end collision with another car at the start of the crash. The safety agency found that many drivers involved in rear-end crashes either did not apply the brakes at all or did not apply the brakes fully prior to the crash.

Crash imminent braking and dynamic brake support systems can intervene by applying the vehicle's brakes or supplementing the driver's braking effort automatically in order to mitigate the severity of the crash or to avoid it altogether.
If you liked the article, please follow us:  Google News icon Google News Youtube Instagram X (Twitter)
About the author: Mircea Panait
Mircea Panait profile photo

After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well.
Full profile

 

Would you like AUTOEVOLUTION to send you notifications?

You will only receive our top stories