The newest story to come out this week is that auto braking must be a standard feature on cars by the year 2022. This new regulation is being put out to help cut down on the amount of traffic accidents in the U.S. This feature will do exactly what it sounds like- when a car approaches an object and the driver doesn’t brake, the car will do it for them to avoid hitting it or at least decrease the force of impact. The cars will have some sort of sensor on the front of car that will be able to detect objects in range of it. This feature is already available on some cars now, but it is an option. 20 major auto companies have already agreed to have this feature standard on their cars including General Motors, Honda, and VW. This technology is relatively new so there is still much to be learned to perfect it. Volvo had 2 absolute fails when showing their new auto braking system in 2 different cars. One of their tests ran right through a pedestrian and the other demolished the rear end of a semi. Both videos can be found in the video tab.

In my opinion this feature is almost useless and a bad idea. Yeah, it may help in situations where the driver doesn’t react fast enough, but why couldn’t they react fast enough in the first place? This new system is going to give drivers too much slack when driving. They’ll be able to get away with being on their cell phones and what not because they’ll rely on their car to stop if they don’t have enough time to. It will save them from getting into accidents, but only because they were distracted by something and couldn’t stop in time themselves.

Tell me how you feel about this new regulation! Is it going to give drivers too much slack when driving or will it help in other scenarios?

Sources: http://www.motortrend.com/news/manufacturers-agree-make-emergency-braking-standard-2022/

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2016/03/17/automatic-emergency-braking-coming-all-cars-2022/81907516/