US government to mandate automatic braking like Tesla's AEB at up to 62 MPH speed for all new cars and trucks

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration issued a so-called Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to mandate the heretofore voluntary automatic braking option that automakers agreed to equip their cars with back in 2016. Not only does the NHTSA want to make features like Tesla's Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB) mandatory for all new cars and trucks, regardless of the powertrain, but it also detailed the mandate's specifications.

Automakers will have three years to comply with the AEB mandate after its adoption. It would "require all cars to be able to stop and avoid contact with a vehicle in front of them up to 62 miles per hour," says the NHTSA. A recent Tesla update upped the automatic braking engagement speed to 125 MPH speed and also introduced it in reverse. As for pedestrians, the rule will oblige car manufacturers to install an automatic emergency braking system that detects and avoids a collision with them at night, too.

The proposed AEB feature that would stop the car before clashing with an oncoming vehicle at up to 62 MPH is described as consisting of "various sensor technologies and sub-systems that work together to detect when the vehicle is close to crashing, and then automatically applies the vehicle brakes if the driver has not done so, or applies more braking force to supplement the driver’s braking as necessary to avoid or mitigate the severity of the crash."

According to the NHTSA's Preliminary Regulatory Impact Analysis, the AEB mandate, as detailed, will result in at least 360 less deaths on the road a year. The ability of new cars and trucks to stop automatically to avoid a collision would also prevent no less than 24,000 injuries every year, says the NHTSA.

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