AEB Regulation Comes to Trucking
A little over a month ago, we wrote an article asking if automatic emergency braking (AEB) will ever become standard on heavy-duty trucks. We now have our answer, as the Department of Transportation (DOT) wants to require it on all medium-duty and heavy-duty vehicles in the year 2027 and beyond.
AEB and How it Works
Simply put, AEB works by detecting if there are any objects within a specific range in front of the vehicle, with the detection moving further and further ahead the faster the truck moves. When an object gets too close to the truck for the truck’s speed, the brakes will automatically be applied, slowing it down.
Even if the truck does not stop in time for the collision, the reduction in speed is supposed to reduce damage considerably when compared to a standard driver that is distracted for whatever reason. It does not take an expert physicist to understand that a 25 mile per hour collision is less catastrophic than a 65 MPH one.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates the ruling will save 150 lives and prevent 20,000 preventable crashes every year.
The Cost of Safety
2027 models of medium and heavy-duty trucks will require this technology, but it is not being retroactively applied to trucks before that model year. It will invariably increase the cost for the purchaser on the new truck, but to what extent is currently unknown. We hope that it is low enough that it does not convince drivers to continue driving their older trucks even further than they do now, as trucks are currently older than they have ever been.
Conclusion
The call for more safety regulation with minimal burden has been met with support from various trucking organizations such as the American Trucking Associations (ATA). “With NHTSA’s recent regulation requiring AEB on all new passenger vehicles, this proposal for heavy-duty trucks is timely and appropriate,” Dan Horvath, ATA VP of safety policy, said in a statement responding to the ruling declaration.
We also support the requirement for AEB, as it just makes plain economic sense. Even from a purely machiavellian perspective with absolutely no regard for human life, installing a $2,000 detection unit to save what would otherwise be tens of thousands of dollars in repair costs seems perfectly reasonable to us.
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