About 40 countries have agreed on a draft United Nations Regulation for Advanced Emergency Braking Systems (“AEBS”) for cars.
The draft UN regulation, adopted at the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (“UNECE”), will lay down the technical requirements for the approval of “vehicle-to-vehicle” and “vehicle-to-pedestrian” AEBS fitted on cars. These 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.
In a statement, the UNECE said that these actions would significantly improve road safety, especially in cities, where in the European Union alone, over 9,500 fatalities were recorded in 2016, accounting for 38 percent of all road deaths. Inside urban areas, 50 percent of the fatalities were drivers and 40 percent were pedestrians.
According to estimates by the European Commission, AEBS could save more than 1,000 lives every year within the EU.
AEBS already are available for some cars in some countries, but there were no standard technical requirements guaranteeing the effective performance of these systems so far.
The new UN regulation will impose strict and internationally harmonized requirements for the use of AEBS at low speeds, even in complex and unpredictable situations such as traffic in urban areas. The regulation sets out test requirements for the deployment of AEBS at a range of different speeds, from 0-60 km/h.
In addition to cars, the regulation will be applicable to all light commercial vehicles (vans and minibuses with fewer than nine passengers). With this regulation in force, most existing systems will have to be updated to meet the stricter requirements.
The draft regulation was approved by the Working Party on Automated/Autonomous and Connected Vehicles (“GRVA”) under UNECE's World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations (WP.29). The draft will be submitted to the World Forum for consideration and formal adoption at its June 2019 session. Following its adoption, the new regulation would enter into force in early 2020.
The European Union and Japan, which together led the development of the regulation, have announced that AEBS systems then would become mandatory for all new cars and light commercial vehicles (from 2022 in the EU). This would mean that over 15 million new cars in the EU (sales figures for 2017) and over four million new cars in Japan (sales figures for 2018) would be equipped with AEBS technology every year.
The regulation builds on an existing UN regulation on AEBS for trucks and buses, which is primarily designed to improve safety in motorway conditions.
The GRVA indicated that it will continue working on further amendments to the UN regulation so that AEBS are capable of preventing collisions with pedestrians in a wider range of contexts. The GRVA also will define requirements for detecting and reducing the risk of collision with cyclists, which are much more difficult to detect than other vehicles.
These requirements are currently being finalized and are expected to be considered for adoption by GRVA in September 2019.