Industry News: NHTSA Ponders Auto Braking Systems

[William Maley]

By William Maley

Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com

May 16, 2013

During a congressional hearing on crash-prevention features yesterday, the National Highway Traffic Administration's administrator David Strickland told the hearing that NHTSA was considering a new mandate to require new vehicles to be equipped with an automatic braking system.

Automatic braking systems uses either or both radar and cameras to monitor the road for vehicles and objects then apply the brakes if the system detects a possible accident and of the driver fails to hit the brakes. Automakers such as Volvo and Mercedes-Benz offer auto braking systems and have been praised both by NHTSA and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

Strickland told reporters after the hearing that a decision whether automatic braking systems will be made mandatory or if more research will need to take place sometime later this year.

Source: Automotive News (Subscription Required)

William Maley is a staff writer for Cheers & Gears. He can be reached at [email protected] or you can follow him on twitter at @realmudmonster.

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[Drew Dowdell]

eh... it's still a bit early in the technology

[William Maley]

eh... it's still a bit early in the technology

That's why I think (and hope) they put into the research phase for now.

[G. David Felt]

Keep your auto braking system out of my auto. Too early and do not need it plus the extra weight.

[Robert Hall]

Still early for this technology, but it will be a necessary feature for self-driving cars. Tomorrow's drivers will want self-driving cars as driving is too distracting from texting, Facebooking, watching videos, etc.

[Drew Dowdell]

I'm not sure how much, if any, extra weight this would add... it's just using other existing systems.

[FAPTurbo]

I'm not sure how much, if any, extra weight this would add... it's just using other existing systems.

C&G told me that microchips are responsible for adding eleventy zillion pounds onto our cars.

It's a conspiracy by Intel, ARM, Linux and their Illuminerdy friends at Google to take away our right to rear-end fellow citizens!

[daves87rs]

Well, something else to break....

[G. David Felt]

Just think when you have a surge of electricity and everything shorts out. What a Hell it will be trying to fix it. Might as well just crush the car and buy a new one.

So much for being a freedom machine, they will find a way to control us as the US goes down the road of Socialism.

[Drew Dowdell]

Just think when you have a surge of electricity and everything shorts out. What a Hell it will be trying to fix it. Might as well just crush the car and buy a new one.

So much for being a freedom machine, they will find a way to control us as the US goes down the road of Socialism.

[FAPTurbo]

Just think when you have a surge of electricity and everything shorts out. What a Hell it will be trying to fix it. Might as well just crush the car and buy a new one.

So much for being a freedom machine, they will find a way to control us as the US goes down the road of Socialism.

[Drew Dowdell]

Just think when you have a surge of electricity and everything shorts out. What a Hell it will be trying to fix it. Might as well just crush the car and buy a new one.

So much for being a freedom machine, they will find a way to control us as the US goes down the road of Socialism.

[Drew Dowdell]

Just think when you have a surge of electricity and everything shorts out. What a Hell it will be trying to fix it. Might as well just crush the car and buy a new one.

So much for being a freedom machine, they will find a way to control us as the US goes down the road of Socialism.

[Robert Hall]

Just think when you have a surge of electricity and everything shorts out. What a Hell it will be trying to fix it. Might as well just crush the car and buy a new one.

So much for being a freedom machine, they will find a way to control us as the US goes down the road of Socialism.

[G. David Felt]

You guys crack me up!

[dwightlooi]

I am all for it as long as it is a user defeat-able feature.

[balthazar]

Packard worked on radar braking circa '56. Just a historical footnote.

Auto-braking is not anything I'd aspire to have on my vehicle, but autonomous vehicles are the way things are going.

[Camino LS6]

Ugh.

What's wrong with letting this technology evolve on its own, and find acceptance in the market (or not) on its own?

I don't know how good Benz's electric braking is now, but it was flat-out lousy and scary at its debut.

[Camino LS6]

NHTSA has a mandate addiction.

And the insurance industry is the pusher.

[G. David Felt]

True the insurance industry mandate is to have NHTSA push everything they want to automate and make accidents a thing of the past so that they get to take your money and give nothing in return.

Course if we go auto self driving cars, does that mean we can have NHTSA Mandate no need for insurance than?

[Drew Dowdell]

Ugh.

What's wrong with letting this technology evolve on its own, and find acceptance in the market (or not) on its own?

I don't know how good Benz's electric braking is now, but it was flat-out lousy and scary at its debut.

I can say from very recent experience... it's pretty darn good.