Emergency Braking Will Save Lives. Automakers Want to Charge Extra for It
For at least 100 years, automakers have stuck to a tried and trusted playbook: They’ll kick, scream, and obfuscate before they’re forced by law to fit profit-draining, life-saving technology. From their successful rejection of speed governor proposals in the 1920s, to their shaming by lawyer Ralph Nader’s Unsafe at Any Speed published in 1965, which inspired the creation of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in the US, auto companies—Volvo excepted—have rarely incorporated safety features willingly.
True to form, a lawsuit filed January 17 by the auto industry’s leading lobbying group seeks to repeal a safety rule that would make automated emergency braking standard equipment in all cars—something that NHTSA estimates will save at least 362 lives every year, but which road safety groups expect will save many more, perhaps even tens of thousands more.
The auto industry claims the rule will be almost impossible to implement. Road safety experts say this is patently false, and accuse car companies of balking at the cost of fitting upgraded braking kit as standard, despite the lifesaving potential.
