Introduction of new safety measure to save 17,000 lives by 2025.

Posted by: Neil Murphy | Posted on: September 4th, 2014 | 0 Comments

The introduction of the new safety measure, autonomous emergency braking (AEB), being hailed as ‘the next seat belt’, could save 17,000 lives by 2025, if made a compulsory feature in all vehicles by 2015.

AEB has the technological capability to stop and slow vehicle that are driving at speeds of up to 50 mph, before a collision occurs. It uses radar and lasers that are able to detect uncertainties in the roads if there is no response from the driver. Such as another vehicle that is too close, if someone walks out in front of the car or if there are obstacles obstructing the path

The chief executive of Thatcham, Peter Shaw, told What Car magazine that it could be as significant as the introduction of seat belts. Since the introduction of seat belts in 1983 the number of motorists killed or injured in an accident was cut by 50%.

There’s hope that the AEB will be as successful in terms of the reduction of deaths  with an estimated number of 17,000 less accidents by 2025. It has been suggested that as well as reducing deaths and accidents insurance premiums could fall by at least 10%.

According to official government figures last year the UK had 1,713 deaths and 21,657 people seriously injured due to car collisions. This number will be expected to drop significantly if AEB becomes a feature of new vehicles.

In a bid to kick start the process and introduce the technology to more cars, Mr Shaw has called for the Treasury to offer an incentive in the sum of £500 for cars fitted with this mechanism. He has said that  this ‘has the potential to be as important a breakthrough as the seat belt in terms of vehicle safety’.

Even though it has been compared to the seat-belt AEB is actually from a new breed of ‘active safety’ that prevents accidents from occurring. Seat-belts are a form of ‘passive safety’ as they were introduced as a cautionary measure to reduce damage in the case of an accident.

On the market today AEB is available in an average of a quarter of new cars. Ford has fitted AEB in some of their Focus models however only 10% of these are sold. Volvo however is believed to be offering AEB as a standard feature on every model and they are the only manufacturer to be doing so.