Automakers Want Feds to Pump the Brakes on New Emergency Braking Rules

The Biden administration would like for car manufacturers to equip their vehicles with new and improved emergency braking systems that could reduce accidents and save lives. Car manufacturers would rather not. So a lobbying group representing the biggest names in automotives is suing to stop the new rule from taking effect.

The Alliance of Automotive Innovation—which represents automakers including Ford, General Motors, Hyundai, Toyota, and Volkswagen among others—filed a lawsuit with the US Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in an attempt to overturn the new braking rules passed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) before they are enforced starting in 2029.

So what exactly is this rule that is so intrusive that these companies simply cannot comply even with four years of lead time?

Well, last year, the US Department of Transportation finalized a new Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard that would require all light-duty vehicles including passenger vehicles, SUVs and pickups to implement automatic emergency braking systems capable of stopping and avoiding contact with other vehicles in front of them at speeds up to 62 miles per hour. It should also brake automatically “up to 90 mph when a collision with a lead vehicle is imminent, and up to 45 mph when a pedestrian is detected.” The systems must also be able to detect pedestrians both in daylight and at night.

Automakers protested when the new rules were proposed and filed petitions encouraging the NHTSA to reconsider under the notion that the currently available technology couldn’t meet the standards set forth by the agency. (The group of automakers has already asked Trump to roll back the rules, too.) The NHTSA was unmoved by that plea, basically arguing that their goal is to force the industry to develop and use that technology to meet the new requirements.

For what it’s worth, AEB systems are pretty damn effective at reducing accidents. A study from AAA found that 2024 models of vehicles equipped with the current version of the safety feature were able to avoid 100% of forward collisions when tested at speeds up to 35 mph. The NHTSA’s own data suggests bumping the AEB requirements up to 62 mph will save 360 lives per year and prevent more than 24,000 injuries, and the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute believes the technology could lead to “substantially higher safety gains” that will help to avoid more accidents.

Interestingly, the same lobbying group that believes it simply will not be able to achieve the technology needed to help vehicles brake automatically at higher speeds has also pushed for looser regulations that would allow for the deployment of more autonomous vehicles on roads across the country. Innovation first and safety second, apparently.