Studies indicate that Automatic Braking can reduce car crashes by 40%

Two recently published American studies, one by a government-auto industry partnership and the other by the insurance industry, reveal that automatic emergency braking reduces the number of rear-end car crashes on US roads by half. It also cuts pickup truck crashes by 40%.

Vehicles fitted with automatic emergency braking can stop or slow down if a collision with another car on a thoroughfare occurs imminently.

Several automotive manufacturers are committed to making advanced braking technology a standard feature of 95% of their light-duty vehicles during this current model year ending in August 2023.

The Partnership for Analytics Research in Traffic Safety studied the comparison of data on auto equipment with twelve million police-reported crashes from thirteen US states collected by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The group, consisting of the Partnership for Analytics Research in Traffic Safety and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, studied the performances of vehicles featuring emergency braking and forward collision warning.

The group discovered that front-to-rear crashes were cut by 49% when the striking vehicle featured both forward collision alert and automatic braking, compared to cars that did not have either system. According to the study, rear-end crashes with injuries were reduced by 53%.

The study found that vehicles equipped with forward collision warning systems reduced rear-end crashes by 16%. However, it also indicated that they decreased rear-end crashes with injuries by 19%.

Vehicles featuring automatic emergency braking work well, especially when weather, lighting, and roadway conditions are poor, as revealed by the study of the group.

The group looked at the benefits of lane departure and lane-keeping assist systems, helping cars stay in their lanes on roads. They reduced crashes from vehicles leaving the roadway by 8%. They lowered road-departure crashes that cause injuries by 7%.

Tim Czapp, the senior manager for safety at European automobile company Stellantis, the industry co-chair of the partnership's board, said in a statement, “These emerging technologies can substantially reduce the number of crashes and improve safety outcomes.”

Another study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety indicates that automatic emergency braking decreases rear-end collisions by 43% and rear-end injury crashes by 42%. The IIHS, on the other hand, discovered that pickup trucks are less likely to have automated emergency braking than cars or SUVs despite posing an increased danger to motorists.

A statement from Jessica Cicchino, the institute's president of research, says, "Pickups account for 1 out of 5 passenger vehicles on U.S. roads, and their large size can make them dangerous to people in smaller vehicles or on foot.”

In documents filed with the government this year, Mitsubishi, Ford, Mercedes-Benz, Stellantis (formerly Fiat Chrysler), Volkswagen, and Honda all claim that 90% of their vehicles now come equipped with emergency braking systems.

At the end of the 2022 model year, only 73% of General Motors vehicles had the technology; GM expects to reach 90% by the end of the current year.

According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, more than 90% of BMW, Mazda, Hyundai, Subaru, Toyota, Tesla, and Volvo cars are equipped with automated emergency braking technology.