AEB-The Safety Tech That Should Come Standard on Every Car

AEB (Autonomous Emergency Braking), or, as some automakers call it, "Brake Assist" or "Brake Support," is as vital as airbags and ABS. We firmly believe that this-life saving technology should operate in tandem with ABS and SRS airbags to save more lives. 

The AEB system is an ingenious solution that notices when you’re not pressing on the pedal quickly enough to stop, and it automatically brakes the car for you. In fact, the system operates so well that it can nearly prevent you from having any rear-end accidents, ever, at speeds of up to 60km/h.

To explain how this works, Cars Guide says, "AEB, which was introduced in 2009 by Volvo, unsurprisingly, works by using those radar systems to measure the distance to any vehicle in front of you, and then react if that distance suddenly starts getting smaller at a great rate of knots - usually because the object in front of you has come to, or is coming to, a sudden stop.

Different car companies use other methods, of course, like Subaru, which bundles AEB into its EyeSight system, which uses cameras instead to create three-dimensional pictures of the world around your car.

Being computer controlled, these systems can react faster than you, so before you’ve even soaked up your typical human reaction time of one second, they are applying the brakes. And doing so, thanks to good old ABS technology, with maximum force.

The car’s CPU watches whether you have gotten off the throttle and are applying the brakes yourself, of course, so it doesn’t always step in before you do, but if you’re not quick enough to stop an accident, it will."*

ABS alone is inadequate since humans sometimes don't respond fast enough to apply the brakes. The problem is that this technology is still limited to more premium car models or at least higher trim levels. These days many manufacturers offer AEB on higher trim levels such as their fully specced out models, but surprisingly, some actually offer AEB as standard on their entry level cars, such as the Mazda 3 and CX-5 and Skoda’s Octavia.

It's a shame that this crucial safety tech does not come as a standard feature with all new cars. We believe it should be standardized on ALL new vehicles, regardless of price or trim level- much like SRS airbags and ABS brakes these days. 

Do you agree? Do you have AEB in your car?

* Cars Guide Source:

https://www.carsguide.com.au/car-advice/what-is-autonomous-emergency-braking-or-aeb-51459?fbclid=IwAR0mIHIKCFO6gYdx3roRL0kZZ4EiVSiG-qIn-aUYLOncul6M1fiSTJfvp3Q