Although the U.S. automotive industry has committed to fitting most light vehicles with life-saving automatic braking systems by 2022, it will be a number of years before commercial vehicles and large trucks receive the same technology, according to a recent report from Research and Markets.

Research from the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute has found that automatic emergency braking (AEB) could decrease truck fatalities by between 44 percent to 47 percent, leading four key groups within the trucking industry to call for industry-wide AEB implementation. The global collision avoidance system market is expected to reach a value of $50.38 billion by 2020, according to a report available from Research and Markets, but this forecast could be higher if AEB becomes a trucking industry standard.

The Truck Safety Coalition, Center for Auto Safety, Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety and Road Safe America filed a petition last month requesting that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) make AEB mandatory for all new trucks. Developing reliable automated safety systems for commercial vehicles and trucks is a greater challenge due to the vehicles larger size and heavier weight. It is necessary to ensure that an AEB system would not cause the vehicle to flip or lose control in the event of rapid braking. The NHTSA expects it will take some time to develop the required technology, and while they have granted the aforementioned petition, no defined timeline has been set in place for when the change will be implemented.

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