The Transportation Department projects the new rule could save 360 lives a year and prevent 24,000 injuries.
The Biden administration plans to require that all new cars and trucks come with pedestrian-collision avoidance systems that include automatic emergency braking technology by the end of the decade.
In an interview, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said the requirement is designed to reduce pedestrian deaths, which have been on the rise in the post-Covid 19 era.
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The new standards will require all cars to avoid contact at up to 62 mph and mandate that they must be able to detect pedestrians in the dark. They will also require braking at up to 45 mph when a pedestrian is detected.
The Transportation Department projects the rule could save 360 lives a year and prevent 24,000 injuries.
Or we could regulate vehicle size and reduce speed limits, two things actually proven to reduce pedestrian fatalities and that could be implemented today without waiting on future technological advancements
¯\_ (ツ)_/¯
Speed limits suck at slowing people down. It’s much more effective to change the size and shape of roads. Slimmer roads, with roundabout’s and more pedestrian right of ways slow down cars.
They just made a 6 lane road that goes through commercial strip mall type area 30km/h when it used to be 50km/h. It’s for like 4 blocks with 50km/h on either side. Lights at all intersections.
NO ONE goes 30km/h there, it’s the most insane thing ever.
Side streets with no speed limits (which here makes it 50km/h) thats usually way too fast and most people will naturally go slower than 50 but not gonna lie, 30km/h on some of those also seems excessive.
Add some speed bumps, narrow the street by adding side walks on both sides, and suddenly 30 feels fine.
Tell that to drivers in the Netherlands lol, holy fuck those guys love to haul ass down twisty 2 lane roads that are only 1.75 lanes wide. Still don’t understand how I never lost a side view mirror driving over there.
Don’t even need to reduce size - just reduce hood height (especially when it is unused space for “aesthetics”)
And the technology sucks. I bought a new Subaru last year that has the auto-braking, it activated twice when it didn’t need to at all so I shut it off every time because it’s a fucking hazard.
Seems like you’re unlucky. Subaru’s system is generally considered one of the best in the industry, routinely outperforming the competition.
Separate question, but what model and year? I’m considering a new forester to replace my 2010 Hyundai Santa Fe.
My coworker has a '19 or '20 Legacy and complained about this same thing. He said it’s activated when speeding up behind a vehicle to pass it, cutting power just as he’s about to change lanes to go around.
Yikes. That sounds dangerous! If this is allowed to be deactivated then I would do that.
Sounds like that driver could be like all the other angry “i gotta be in people’s assholes” drivers that are out and about these days. I have a 2024 Solterra and it doesn’t do anything that is being described, however I also leave plenty of space between me and the person in front of me.
Seems the system could be working as intended ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ but they can all be disabled.
I’ve got a '19 Crosstrek and no issues here either. Yes occasionally the warning beeps at me. Usually it’s someone in front of me slowing down for a turn. From my experience, I know they’ll finish making the turn before I reach them and I don’t need to slow down. The system sees a car stopping in front of me and rightfully flashes the red light and beeps. I’ve never had it actually hit the brakes for me but then again, I try to leave plenty of space between me and other cars. My guess is this guy is speeding up to pass but getting way too close to the car in front of him to do it.
Car hoods are getting higher and higher, which makes hitting a pedestrian much more lethal than before.
The shape of smaller (sane) car is made specifically to be aerodynamic, and to also ensure the impact mostly happens at the legs and raise the pedestrian to minimize damage and hopefully avoid running over them. Those mastodons on the streets are insane.
Fuck cars (and trucks especially!)
In the UK pedestrian car collisions are falling, despite increased amounts of cars and distances walked. In the US pedestrian collisions are at high.
I don’t think it’s the safety features in cars that matter here. Similar features are going to be present in the UK as the US. People in the US are buying bigger and bigger trucks. They also have less walkable cities (this could also improve in the UK). They should be taxing larger vehicles more. Get them off the road, they have larger blind spots and greater injury on impact.
I look forward to finding out if it actually helps or makes things worse as people rely more and more on safety features instead of paying attention while driving. I find drivers are far more distracted and driving dangerously today than 20 years ago, almost always staring at phones or those giant consoles they insist on putting in every vehicle.
Maybe a long term outcome will be better sensor tech that puts us closer to fully automated driving.
at least half the drivers (out of the many) that don’t stop at the crosswalk i’m trying to use on my way to or from the office (my commute is a short walk. the street is the ‘main drag’ in a small town’s downtown) either have their phone in their hands or are looking down (and i can’t actually see the phone).
Two words: Water balloons.
I do not think we will have anything approaching truly safe fully automated driving outside of limited areas for a long time. There are just too many unknown variables to account for that a creatively-thinking human brain can respond to better.
I can certainly think of a time I’ve gotten out of a crash through some creative driving on my part. I’m sure others can too.
Human experience can be better in some circumstances and automated is better in others. I wouldn’t expect an automated driving system to handle off roading where experience fills in a lot of unknown details. But humans are not able to pay 100% attention all the time and make basic mistakes.
Eventually automated driving will end up being safer overall, just like with autopilot in planes, but the complexity of driving on the ground means we will need a combination of better road markings, better road design, and a lot of time to refine both the training algorithms and develop better processing abilities to keep up with the complexity. At some point the design defects will lead to fewer mistskes than human error in cities, but I see that as decades down the road since the companies involved have already been blatantly lying about their issues.
What I would like to see is first (in the US) is a focus on being able to use full automation on interstate highways. This would massively help with driving fatigue for truckers and people on long trips in a controllled environment with few pedestrians. It would also be a great training ground for avoiding large mammals like deer that can be as unpredictable as humans. Then expand to regular highways, and eventually imto cities. Starting with cities was basically shooting themselves in the foot, especially if the reason was lower speeds while not balancing that benefit against the complexity of urban roads.
Only 7 years behind the EU this time. That’s getting better! Now do adaptive headlights…
They did already. It was legalized in Bidens IRA.
Looks like the NHTSA finalized the rules allowing them in feb, 2022.
That’s a good first step. I want to see them made mandatory.
This reminds me of an argument I once had with a friend about seat belts. He kept pointing to NTSB statistics about vehicle collision mortality saying that seatbelts aren’t necessary because mortality without seatbelts has fallen steeply since the 80’s. And while he was right, he didn’t understand that the mortality rates dropping were due to advances in medical science as well as other vehicle safety features, vehicular legislation, and road designs. It was like arguing with a mud pile, so frustrating. The stats didn’t include the number of people who had survived but were paralyzed, or disfigured, or otherwise faced some major life-altering injury.
24,000 injuries.
That’s not gonna do more than a drop in the bucket. Y’all’s government thinks tech can fix something that good pedestrian-first infrastructure should fix. That’s kinda wack.
Vehicle sizes, hood clearance, non-car-centric infrastructure mandates, that’s the sort of things rules should include. Not “let’s have AI decide if the pedestrian or cyclist lives”
Looks like I’m going to keep buying cars made before ~2007.
Better pick an early electric car, because the days of ICE cars being allowed into cities are numbered.
Honestly, I prefer this. An older car for dealing with shit in the sticks where I live, something easily maintained that will last forever (no battery fatigue). Then park it and use transit into the city.
I live near SF and when I go into the city (rarely) I take BART. I do not want to drive in the city
The durability of electric car batteries is far better than expected. Even in the case of early models with extremely basic battery packs and no active cooling (e.g. Nissan Leaf), the packs almost always outlast the cars they’re built into:
Maintenance of EVs in general is far simpler than on ICE cars. There’s a much smaller number of components. Almost everything related to the drivetrain is practically maintenance-free.
