The mandatory introduction of Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB) on new vehicles sold in New Zealand could save hundreds of Kiwi lives and reduce the cost of insurance, says one expert.
Volvo NZ general manager Coby Duggan, in a report from FutureFive NZ, said studies have shown vehicles with AEB have around 40% fewer collisions.
AEB, Duggan claims, is the most significant development in car safety since the three-point seatbelt, which came out in the 1950s. AEB is already standard in many new vehicles sold in New Zealand but is not yet compulsory, he said.
The idea is that the system uses sensors, radar, lasers, and cameras to automatically detect obstacles in the path of a vehicle and warn the driver or automatically brake to prevent or mitigate a crash.
“By making this system mandatory in all new vehicles sold in this country we have the potential to save hundreds of lives and prevent thousands of more casualties,” Duggan noted.
The call follows Thatcham Research, a motor insurer’s research division based in the UK, naming the Volvo XC90 the safest car ever made, wherein no driver or passenger has ever been killed in an XC90, despite sales of over 50,000 units since its introduction in 2002. This, Duggan states, is partly due to its early adoption of hazard detection technology and its addition of AEB.
With South Korea, the European Union and the United States working to implement laws to make AEB compulsory from 2019, 2020 and 2022 respectively, it is timely for New Zealand to review its own regulations, Duggan believes. Vehicles fitted with AEB are also often cheaper to insure in other markets, he added.
