Automakers commit to put automatic brakes in all cars

[PoliticAverse]

Ten automakers have committed to the government and a private safety group that they will include automatic emergency braking in all new cars, a step transportation officials say could significantly reduce traffic deaths and injuries.

But safety advocates were swift to criticize the effort as a backroom deal that allows automakers to avoid the possibility that the Transportation Department will impose a legal requirement for inclusion of the braking systems in cars and set binding standards for the technology.

Making the technology widely available is part of a new era in vehicle safety in which the focus is on preventing crashes rather than on protecting occupants from their effects, Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said Friday in a statement announcing the commitments.

The announcement didn't specify a timetable for implementing the change. The automakers are Audi, BMW, Ford, General Motors, Mazda, Mercedes Benz, Tesla, Toyota, Volkswagen and Volvo. The manufacturers represented 57 percent of U.S. car and light truck sales in 2014.

Read the rest at: http://phys.org/news/2015-09-automakers-commit-automatic-cars.html

USDOT press release on the issue:
http://www.transportation.gov/briefing-room/us-dot-and-iihs-announce-historic-commitment-10-automakers-include-automatic-emergency

[HassleCat]

1. Bad idea

I don't want an automatic braking system to wake me up while I'm driving.

[PoliticAverse]

2. Just buy the fully autonomous version, ask it to wake you when you arrive at your destination. n/t

[enlightenment]

3. I can see issues arising from this -

particularly if they install it to operate at highway speeds. Sensors are tricky critters.

[Logical]

4. I bet they have their best people on it. They probably have thought through it a little. nt

[enlightenment]

6. You first!

I'm not a fan of auto-pilot, either.

[Logical]

7. Technology waits for no man. And it seems to be moving forward pretty successfully......

commercial airline safety in the USA is safer than ever.

Aviation safety in the United States

The risks of airline travel around the world are very small, but the numbers look really good if you board a scheduled passenger airliner in the United States. Since September 11, 2001, there have been four commercial aircraft accidents in the United States that have resulted in fatalities. That means that in nine of the past 13 years, the odds of being involved in an accident that included a fatality have been zero.

The last fatal airline accident in the United States was Asiana Airlines Flight 214 which crashed in San Francisco on July 6, 2013. It resulted in three fatalities out of 307 passengers and crew on board. Prior to that, the last accident was the February 12, 2009 crash of Colgan Air Flight 3407 near Buffalo, New York, which resulted in the deaths of all 50 people on board.


Read more: http://thepointsguy.com/2015/02/how-safe-is-air-travel-the-statistical-truth/#ixzz3lYEvoqjl

[PoliticAverse]

5. It's usually the case that technology like this that is designed for increased safety does

result in a few accidents that wouldn't have occurred otherwise even while reducing the
overall accident rate. You could perhaps have a case where a car suddenly stops on the
highway because a piece of news paper was blown onto the road and confused the sensors
causing the car to quickly stop and be hit from the rear by someone in a car without this
technology driving too close.

[Skink]

8. I was leaning toward the death penalty for tailgaters

This will have to do for now.

[JCMach1]

11. Tailgating is epidemic these days and it royally grinds my gears too...

[Fumesucker]

9. OK, you can all take your left feet off the damn brake pedal now

You know who you are...

[Lulu Belle]

10. There are trucks with this system

Installed on the road now.
One of them is called "Wingman".
It is adjustable for several thresholds.
The drivers that I know that have driven trucks so equipped hate the system.
They say that sometimes the brakes will apply when passing under an overpass, or going around a curve.
People need to pay more attention to their driving, not rely on automatic braking to do it for them.