Improved Automatic Braking Technology Is Coming Soon as a Standard Feature in Cars
Knowing when to apply the brakes and how much pressure to use is not as simple as it seems. Driver’s ed teachers tell teens to start pressing the brakes lightly when they are some distance down the road from a red light or stop sign. During the first few practice sessions with parents, teens fly down the road and then slam on the brakes just in time to avoid rear ending the next car. Later on, they get to the point where they slam on the brakes in the middle of an empty lane of traffic, hundreds of feet away for a yellow light; no one ever said that being the parent of a student driver was for the faint of heart. If you think teaching a stubborn teenager when to brake is a challenge, try teaching a computer when to brake. For about the past decade, vehicle manufacturers have been doing just that. Automatic braking systems (ABS) are standard in many vehicles, but they are not perfect. The federal government has just issued new regulations requiring the ABS technology in cars starting in model year 2029 to be even more effective. If you have been injured in a car accident where failure to brake in time was a factor, contact a Jacksonville car accident lawyer.
Imagine Automatic Brakes That Can Deal With Rain and High Speeds
Unless you drive an old clunker, your car probably has ABS, and it has probably saved you from at least a few fender benders. Today’s automatic brakes are good at telling you whether you have room to pull into the narrow parking space where you are trying to park. They can brake suddenly when you are backing out of a space in a parking garage and another car passes behind you at high speed. They can even prevent a rear end collision if, after all these years, you haven’t figured out when to brake behind a line of cars at a red light or when the traffic flow is unpredictable.
Where today’s automatic brakes do not work so well is with excessive speed and heavy rain, both of which are prevalent in Florida. The new regulations require automatic brakes to work at all speeds up to 62 miles per hour, in other words, within all the speed limits that you are likely to encounter in city traffic. They must also work better in rainy conditions; today’s automatic brakes are not great at telling the difference between raindrops in front of the car’s sensors and obstacles in the road. Not that this matters in Florida, but the new brakes must also be better at detecting obstacles in snowy conditions.
Contact Douglas & Douglas About Car Accident Cases
A North Florida personal injury lawyer can help you if you were injured in an accident that could have been prevented by automatic brakes. Contact Douglas & Douglas in Jacksonville, Florida for a free consultation.
Source:
cars.com/articles/automatic-emergency-braking-to-be-mandated-on-all-new-vehicles-by-2029-482043/#:~:text=Automatic%20Emergency%20Braking%20to%20Be%20Mandated%20on%20All%20New%20Vehicles%20by%202029,-Honda%20Collision%20Mitigation&text=The%20National%20Highway%20Traffic%20Safety,standard%20equipment%20by%20September%202029.
