Mainstream Carmakers Slow to Adopt Life-Saving Automatic Braking

Nissan said Thursday it will add automatic emergency braking (AEB) capabilities to one million models of its cars and trucks in the US by 2018. But the Japanese carmaker largely remains an exception among mainstream automakers by offering the system as standard.

To date, only about 17 percent of models the US Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has tested have collision-avoiding braking, Reuters reported.

Automatic-braking is a low-level self-drive feature compared to Level 3 technology, which allows a driver to relinquish control of the vehicle in certain conditions. It is widely accepted that AEB has the potential to prevent thousands of deaths and injuries a year if all cars are required to offer the system as a standard option.

The technology works by automatically applying the vehicle's brakes when embedded sensors detect that a collision is imminent.

Despite pressures from lawmakers, regulatory bodies, and consumer groups; AEB is often only offered by German and Japanese premium carmakers.

Nissan said it will make AEB available in seven of its models by 2018, including the Altima, Murano, and Rogue.

Meanwhile, 20 carmakers last year agreed to offer AEB as a standard option in their models by 2022.