Driving a safety ‘brake-through’

As pressure grows for accident-free travel, EuroNCAP is pushing for widespread adoption of autonomous emergency braking (AEB) systems as a way to avoid accidents caused by late braking or braking with insufficient force.

Autonomous emergency braking (AEB) is set to eclipse the airbag, antilock brakes, and even electronic stability control as one of the most significant developments in automotive safety, believes Andrew Miller, Research Director at Thatcham Research in the U.K. AEB is expected to be standard equipment on all new cars in Europe within a decade: “This means that car manufacturers are facing not only complex design and engineering challenges to integrate the technology but must meet standards that have yet to be formally agreed.”

In Europe, the effort to get AEB technology quickly and widely adopted by vehicle manufacturers is being driven by the safety organization EuroNCAP. From 2014, unless a vehicle achieves maximum-or very high-marks in every category, it will become practically impossible for it to reach the top 5-Star EuroNCAP rating if it does not feature an AEB system.