Insurance-owned research body, Thatcham Research, is calling on 10 vehicle manufacturers in Europe to match their USA commitment to fit autonomous emergency braking as standard on all new cars.
Ten major vehicle manufacturers in the States — Audi, BMW, Ford, General Motors, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, Tesla, Toyota, Volkswagen and Volvo — have announced the pledge to make crash prevention technologies more widely available to consumers.
“Vehicle manufacturers are widely acknowledged to have contributed the most to cutting death and serious injuries on our roads, with high levels of protection for occupants being the expected norm,” says Peter Shaw, Chief Executive of Thatcham Research.
“Manufacturers have taken great strides forward in crash avoidance and mitigation technology – but far too frequently, it is standard equipment only in luxury vehicles. Elsewhere, it can be expensive, lacking promotion and a little-understood optional extra … or simply not available.”
Thatcham estimates that more than 600,000 cars (1.7%) on the UK roads now have standard fit AEB.
“Volkswagen, Volvo, Mercedes, Nissan and Mazda lead the way in the UK with the highest numbers of cars on our roads with standard fit AEB systems,” says Peter Shaw. “However, only Volvo has crash prevention technology as standard fit across all models.
“Currently nearly 30% of new cars in the UK have an AEB system available, but not, in most cases, standard. Equipping all new cars in the UK with AEB would result in a reduction of 17,000 deaths and serious injuries on the UK’s roads in the next decade.