Autonomous emergency braking (AEB) technology has slowly made its way into new vehicles across the past decade, and the potentially life-saving safety technology will become mandatory in every new car sold in Australia from March 2025.
While not every AEB system is perfect – with reports of ‘phantom’ braking in some models – a study from the US has shown that AEB in near-new vehicles more than halves front-to-rear crashes.
The study, conducted by the Partnership for Analytics Research in Traffic Safety (PARTS), saw police-reported data from 21.2 million crashes and 98 million vehicles analysed to determine the effectiveness of certain advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS).
Vehicles included those from Ford, Hyundai, General Motors, Honda, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Stellantis, Subaru, and Toyota, with two data sets included.
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The first was for AEB-equipped vehicles from model years 2015 to 2017, which saw the technology contribute to a 46 per cent reduction in rear-end crashes.
This figure increased for 2021 to 2023 model year vehicles, for which AEB was found to cut front-to-rear impacts by 52 per cent.
According to PARTS, the data also showed pedestrian-detecting AEB systems reduced single-vehicle collisions with vulnerable road users – such as pedestrians, cyclists, scooter riders and wheelchair users – by nine per cent.
In the US, pedestrian fatalities account for 18 per cent of the nation’s road toll. In Australia the figure is closer to 13 per cent.
The latest PARTS study was an expansion of an earlier look into AEB effectiveness in 2022, which covered 47 million vehicles built between 2015 and 2020.
That earlier study also covered the effectiveness of forward collision warning, which when paired with AEB reduces the chance of a nose-to-tail crash by 49 per cent.
For context, forward collision warning alone only reduces the chances of a crash by 13 per cent.
PARTS’ earlier study additionally discovered the likelihood of motorists suffering injuries in a crash decreased by 53 per cent when both systems were active.
Further studies are yet to come, with Kia recently gaining PARTS membership.
“The data will be used to further study ADAS effectiveness in reducing crash severity,” PARTS said in a media statement.
“The effectiveness study considered whether a vehicle was equipped with a given ADAS feature at the time of manufacture, and future studies will attempt to assess whether that feature was on or activated at the time of crash.”
Previous data from Australia’s Monash University Accident Research Centre shows AEB can reduce vehicle occupant trauma by 28 per cent, while data from Euro NCAP – ANCAP’s European sister organisation – shows it can cut rear-end crashes by 40 per cent.
As reported earlier this month, the introduction of Australian Design Rule 98/00 – mandating autonomous emergency braking (AEB) systems that meet specific technical requirements across all new vehicles on sale – has resulted in the local axing of the Mazda 6, the current Mitsubishi ASX, the Eclipse Cross and Pajero Sport.
MORE: Mitsubishi massacre: Brand axes multiple long-running modelsMORE: Mazda 6: Long-running family sedan and wagon axed in AustraliaMORE: New regulations mandate AEB from 2025
https://thewest.com.au/lifestyle/motoring/yes-this-safety-tech-has-really-reduced-car-crashes-c-17543895
