EU to mandate Autonomous Emergency Braking System to cars sold across Europe

Autonomous Emergency Braking System is the perfect blend of adoptive cruise control and full automatic braking control to avoid frontal collisions in the absence of driver’s efforts. It sounds too futuristic and dreamy, isn’t it?

It resembles that the baby steps have been taken from long future dream to live now. Cars may soon be becoming very much more robotic regardless driver consent. New regulations may be coming to change that soon. European commission will require all new commercial vehicles sold in Europe must be equipped with AEB (Autonomous Emergency Braking System by November 2013.

The cars equipped with AEB will send a signal to driver when it detects any obstacle or coming in its way via RADAR, LIDAR (that’s like radar but with light) or video sensors and apply brakes themselves. many drivers will doubtless mistrust an automated system.

That will be beneficial to passenger cars too. There’s no surprise that car manufacturers try their best to develop new safety systems given that so many people are killed and injured in car accidents every year. But EU regulators are mulling to mandate the potentially expensive system to follow for passenger cars.

European New Car Assessment Program (EURONCAP) –a seven nation-consortium the agency that conducts safety testing and rates new cars in Europe will begin factoring the inclusion of AEB systems in 2014. Moreover, if a car wants a five star safety rating, they’d best include AEB in 2014. This is the first step in making such an expensive system mandatory equipments on cars sold across Europe like ABS and ESP. there are already plenty of company offering like Volvo, Mercedes Benz, VW, Infiniti, Mazda, Ford and others already developed. It’s a matter of time when we can see AEB available on many models

More companies are expected to include the system any time soon including Mazda’s new CX-5, VW’s new up and Fiat’s on the new panda. Like technologies such as airbags, ABS and ESP,AEB systems will likely to trickle down luxury cars to affordable family cars in the not-to-distant future.

Bottom line is that Safety is not luxury, it should be mandatory to our life.

Article by Tushar Makwana