DOT shouldn’t gamble with AEB tech before it’s ready

If you talk to many truck drivers who have operated vehicles equipped with automatic emergency braking systems, it won’t take long to find some who will share stories about the technology’s imperfections.

They’ll tell you how the system will false-activate because it is triggered by the shadows from an overpass or by a guardrail as the truck navigates a curve. They’ll tell you about the dangers of an unanticipated hard brake in icy conditions or on an incline. They’ll tell you about the fear and uneasiness AEBs cause by taking away their control of the vehicle.

“I think that they should hold off until the system is flawless,” truck driver Timothy Scott wrote. “I have it in my truck, and it is very dangerous. If you are driving down the road, it will detect street signs above the highway and brake. If someone is tailgating you or there is snow or ice on the road, you have a dangerous situation. Once they have perfected it, it will not be a bad thing. Until they do, they should not be mandatory.”

Scott’s comments are not unique.

Hundreds of truck drivers with a similar sentiment filed comments to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration about a joint rulemaking that would require AEBs on most new vehicles.

Regrettably, the comments have not appeared to deter the agencies’ plans to move forward with a mandate. If the agencies keep to their schedules, a final rule will be published in April.

The heavy vehicle proposal calls for all new Class 7 and 8 vehicles – those weighing more than 26,000 pounds – to be required to meet the AEB standards three years after the rule takes effect. All new Class 3 to 6 vehicles – those weighing 10,001 to 26,000 pounds – would be required to meet the AEB and electronic stability control requirements in four years.

And while it’s already concerning that the U.S. Department of Transportation appears committed to a mandate despite legitimate concerns from truck drivers, recent comments from a regulatory leader elevate the issue to downright alarming.

During a House Transportation and Infrastructure subcommittee hearing in December, Rep. Mike Collins, R-Ga., told Ann Carlson, who was NHTSA’s acting administrator at the time, that AEB technology has not been perfected.

Collins is a great source, of course, because he operates a trucking company.

“I probably own about 80 trucks with the collision avoidance … I will tell you, they are not bulletproof,” Collins said. “They’re nowhere near it … We all want to be safe. That’s why I tried them. But they don’t work perfectly, and they’re very expensive. The technology is not there.”

And here’s where we get to the alarming part. In Carlson’s response, she seemed to acknowledge that the technology isn’t ready.

“So our best sense is that with the appropriate time, which is something that we consider in finalizing the rule, the technology will save hundreds of lives and prevent thousands of injuries,” Carlson said during the hearing.

Let’s get this straight. The technology isn’t ready, but the agency plans to gamble that it will be ready by the time the mandate would go into effect? Feels like pretty backward logic to me.

If AEBs are going to be perfected in a few years, then wait until that happens. If the technology really works as intended and protects truckers physically and financially, I promise you that the opposition will fade away.

Collin Long, OOIDA’s director of government affairs, may have said it best all the way back in 2021.

“If we’re going to foist this mandate on the entire industry, we better make sure this technology has been perfected, or as close to perfection as technologically possible,” Long said. “And we know from our drivers that it’s not there yet.” LL