May 5, 2022—Vehicle automatic emergency braking systems are implemented with the goal of reducing car accidents in mind, but some complaints have arisen over vehicles braking when they are not supposed to.
According to WSB-TV 2, hundreds of complaints exist surrounding this issue. In February, the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration posted notices on their website regarding complaints about faulty emergency braking in 2018-2019 Honda Accords, 2017-2019 Honda CR-Vs and 2021-2022 Tesla Model 3s and Model Ys.
As a result, NHTSA has launched a formal investigation that will look into the automatic braking systems of both automakers.
“Every automaker builds these systems differently and they all rely on different cues and different sensors to determine when the vehicle is going to be put into that emergency braking,” says Michael Brooks of the Center for Auto Safety, according to the article.
In addition to the investigations spearheaded by NHTSA, there are also class action lawsuits that have been filed against Nissan and Honda over the braking systems.
There are currently no standards in place that these systems are required to follow.
NHTSA has released a notice of proposed rulemaking that outlines a new regulation which would set performance requirements regarding automatic emergency braking systems.
“We’re hoping that NHTSA takes the lessons that it learns in these investigations of the vehicles that are on the road now and can take those lessons, put them into a performance standard that prevents these type of incidents from occurring in the future,” Brooks says.
