Research from the AAA Auto Club identifies that the automatic braking systems in many vehicles that will soon be standard across all cars are not actually guaranteed to bring the vehicle to a full and complete stop.
One Florida-based organization identified that a test of five separate 2016 model year vehicles with these emergency braking systems were designed to prevent crashes and can reduce car speed by up to 79%. However, those automatic braking systems that are intended to decrease accident impact only slow a car’s speed by 40%.
These findings come after numerous government agencies and automakers made official commitment to add automatic emergency braking on every new vehicle produced by the year 2022. Numerous automakers are participating in this pledge.
The vehicles tested by AAA did not perform as well as the agency originally expected. For example, 60% of the vehicles with automatic braking systems designed to minimize crash impacts were successful with avoiding those collisions where speeds were lower than 30 miles per hour.
At speeds greater than 45 miles per hour, however, the vehicles were only able to avoid collisions in 40% of the cases. Four automatic braking systems designed to stop crashes from happening in comparison with those designed to lessen the impact of accidents, where the speeds were only reduced by 9%. If you have recently been injured in a car accident that may be fault of someone else, you need to consult with an experienced personal injury attorney as soon as possible. Do not hesitate to reach out to a lawyer to learn more about your rights and to figure out your next steps.