Automatic Emergency Braking - AEB

Not paying attention for a moment — when driving in traffic, this could have serious consequences. In order to reduce the risk of a rear-end collision or mitigate the consequences of such a collision, Automatic Emergency Braking has been introduced.

Automatic emergency braking – it’s a term that inspires once an impending collision is detected, these systems provide a warning to the driver. When the collision becomes imminent, they take action autonomously without any driver input.  Collision avoidance by braking is appropriate at low vehicle speeds (e.g. below 50 km/h (31 mph)), while collision avoidance by steering may be more appropriate at higher vehicle speeds if lanes are clear.

In March 2016, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety announced the manufacturers of 99% of U.S. automobiles had agreed to include automatic emergency braking systems as standard on virtually all new cars sold in the U.S. by 2022. In Europe, there was a related agreement about advanced emergency braking system (AEBS) or autonomous emergency braking (AEB) in 2012. United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) has announced that this kind of system will become mandatory for new heavy vehicles starting in 2015. NHTSA projected that the ensuing accelerated rollout of automatic emergency braking would prevent an estimated 28,000 collisions and 12,000 injuries. In India, Autonomous Emergency Braking system (AEB) could become mandatory on new cars by 2022.

So what exactly AEB is? How does it work?

AEB - AEB is an autonomous function that automatically applies the brakes when the car has determined a collision is likely. In each case, the system at first provides warnings of an imminent crash, allowing the driver to intervene. If the driver fails to brake within a given amount of time, the car takes over and does so on its own.

AEB Functionality - The technologies involved vary depending on manufacturer, but most use some combination of camera and radar sensors to detect objects ahead of the car.

Such systems have been around for the better part of the past decade, starting generally in luxury brands before filtering more widely in recent years. For the most part, they are capable of detecting probable collisions with cars and pedestrians, although some are now adding other objects such as bicycles and baby strollers.

The PCS features a millimetre-wave radar situated behind the car’s logo on its front grille, which detects the distances of objects in front of it. A camera mounted on the rear-view mirror, meanwhile, identifies exactly what those objects are.

Working together, the two sensors are able to discern cars and pedestrians and how far away they are. If they get too close and the car is moving quickly toward them, the AEB system kicks into the first of three phases.

In the first phase, the driver gets an audio and visual alert on their dashboard that a collision is likely. If the driver doesn’t start to brake, Phase 2 applies pressure to the anti-lock braking system. That way, the driver quickly gets some assistance when they do hit the brake.

If the driver still hasn’t taken action, the system goes into Phase 3 by applying brakes in an attempt to come to a full stop.