Automatic braking can reduce crashes by over 40 per cent, study

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It’s normal to feel overwhelmed and even frustrated by the droves of new safety technology in vehicles these days. From behind the wheel of a rental, for example, all the vibrations, dings, lights, and even automatic tugs on the wheel or pressure on the brakes can feel like too much — so much so that you may be tempted to switch a few of the systems off. Take lane change warning, which can be an outright nuisance in Canadian winter weather where two-lane highways are reduced to single-lane traffic due to snow cover. 

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But there’s one modern safety system that you should never deactivate, because it might just save you from an accident. According to two recent studies out of the U.S. — one from a partnership of government and the auto industry, and the other from the insurance industry — suggest that automatic emergency braking can reduce rear-end crashes by up to 50 per cent, and cut pickup truck crashes by over 40 per cent. 

The Partnership for Analytics Research in Traffic Safety looked at data collected by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) from 12 million crashes over 13 states, specifically honing in on forward collision warning and emergency braking, the latter of which they say works well in all conditions, including poor weather and lighting. The Partnership noted that front-on-rear crashes were reduced by 49 per cent when the rear vehicle had forward collision alert plus automatic braking activated. Such crashes causing injury were also down by 53 per cent. Forward collision warning, meanwhile, only resulted in 16 per cent fewer rear-end crashes and 19 per cent rear crashes with injuries. 

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“These emerging technologies can substantially reduce the number of crashes and improve safety outcomes,” said Tim Czapp, Stellantis’s senior manager for safety and industry co-chair of the partnership’s board.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), meanwhile, also found automatic emergency braking to be a great tool for crash reduction. For pickups, they found a drop in rear crash rates by 43 per cent and rear-end injuries were down by 42 per cent — despite the fact that pickups are responsible for one out of five passenger vehicles on the road, are statistically more dangerous than cars and SUVs, and are less often equipped with automatic braking. 

Luckily, the potentially life-saving technology is being well embraced by automakers. As of last year, Tesla, Volvo, Toyota, BMW, Hyundai, Mazda, and Subaru all already offered automatic braking on over 90 per cent of their models. This year, they’re joined by Stellantis, Mercedes-Benz, Ford, Volkswagen, Honda, Ford, and Mitsubishi, with GM to follow by the end of the model year.