UN Regulation on Advanced Emergency Braking Systems for cars to significantly reduce crashes

13 February 2019

Some 40 Countries have agreed on a draft United Nations Regulation for Advanced Emergency Braking Systems (AEBS) for cars.

This will significantly improve road safety, especially in cities, where in the European Union alone, over 9,500 fatalities were recorded in 2016, accounting for 38% of all road deaths. Inside urban areas, 50% of the fatalities were drivers and 40% were pedestrians.

The draft UN Regulation, adopted at UNECE, will lay down the technical requirements for the approval of “vehicle-to-vehicle” and “vehicle-to-pedestrian” AEBS fitted on cars. Such systems employ sensors to monitor the proximity of the vehicle or pedestrian in front and detect situations where the relative speed and distance between the two vehicles or between the vehicle and pedestrian suggest that a collision is imminent. In such a situation, if the driver does not react to the system’s warning alerts, emergency braking will be automatically applied to avoid the collision or at least to mitigate its effects.

A study by Euro NCAP and Australasian NCAP concluded that AEBS lead to a 38% reduction in real-world rear-end crashes at low speeds. According to estimates by the European Commission, AEBS could save more than 1,000 lives every year within the EU.

AEBS are already available for some cars in some countries, but there were no standard technical requirements guaranteeing the effective performance of such systems so far.