WASHINGTON, DC – Alliance for Automotive Innovation today initiated litigation in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit against the Biden administration’s Department of Transportation.
The complaint seeks a repeal of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) automatic emergency braking (AEB) rule (April 29, 2024).
AEB background and automaker voluntary commitment:
AEB is a game-changing safety technology developed by automakers to help detect the possibility of collisions with vehicles, pedestrians and cyclists. AEB provides a warning to a driver and automatically engages the braking system should the driver not respond.
This litigation by Alliance for Automotive Innovation should not be interpreted as opposition to AEB, a lack of confidence in the technology, or an objection to AEB’s widest possible deployment across the U.S. vehicle fleet.
Rather, this litigation is about ensuring a rule that maximizes driver and pedestrian safety and is technologically feasible.
NOTE: The auto industry has invested more than a billion dollars developing AEB. In 2016, automakers voluntarily agreed to deploy AEB systems on all new vehicles by 2025 and have already met that commitment. This voluntary agreement came after substantial research and consultation with NHTSA and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.
Timeline leading to litigation:
May 31, 2023
NHTSA proposes AEB rulemaking for new vehicles.
August 14, 2023
Alliance for Automotive Innovation submits comments to NHTSA on its AEB proposal.
April 29, 2024
NHTSA finalizes its AEB rule with a no contact requirement: NHTSA said the standard “requires all cars be able to stop and avoid contact with a vehicle in front of them up to 62 miles per hour and that the systems must detect pedestrians in both daylight and darkness.”
NHTSA also “…requires that the system apply the brakes automatically up to 90 mph when a collision with a lead vehicle is imminent, and up to 45 mph when a pedestrian is detected.”
June 24, 2024
Alliance for Automotive Innovation files a petition for reconsideration of the April 29, 2024 rule citing the “impracticability” of NHTSA’s no contact requirement “...including the likelihood that this requirement will lead to unsafe unintended consequences...”
In a letter to Congress, Alliance for Automotive Innovation president and CEO John Bozzella wrote NHTSA’s new standard is: “...practically impossible with available technology. NHTSA’s own data shows only one tested vehicle met the stopping distance requirements in the final rule.”
Bozzella added: “...we recommended NHTSA adopt a standard already in place in Europe that detects a potential forward collision, provides a driver warning and automatically engages the braking system to avoid a collision – or mitigate its severity – through the use of existing crashworthiness systems designed to better protect road users.
“Automakers and suppliers provided NHTSA a series of technical adjustments during the comment period to correct the deficiencies and achieve our shared safety goals. Despite partnering with automakers on AEB in 2016, this time the agency rejected the industry’s feedback.
“...after a decade of shared and substantive work on AEB and a billion dollars invested, NHTSA inexplicably changed course and issued a rule that automakers indicated was not feasible with widely used braking technologies.”
November 12, 2024
In a post-election letter to President Trump the association wrote the 2024 AEB rule is inconsistent with regulations implemented in other parts of the world and urges the incoming administration to “re-open the AEB rule...”
November 25, 2024
NHTSA effectively denies the association’s June 24, 2024 petition for reconsideration of the AEB rule and the no contact requirement.
John Bozzella calls that action: “...a disastrous decision by the nation’s top traffic safety regulator that will endlessly – and unnecessarily – frustrate drivers; will make vehicles more expensive; and at the end of the day... won’t really improve driver or pedestrian safety.”
What’s next?
Now that the Department of Transportation has been alerted of the legal challenge, the agency has 40 days to submit the administrative record to the D.C. Circuit. The court will then set a briefing schedule.
NOTE: It is the prerogative of the incoming administration to repeal or revise the Biden administration’s Department of Transportation AEB rule.
NOTE: The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety indicated it “... expects [the] voluntary [AEB] commitment to prevent 42,000 crashes and 20,000 injuries by 2025.”
About Alliance for Automotive Innovation
From the manufacturers producing most vehicles sold in the U.S. to autonomous vehicle innovators to equipment suppliers, battery producers and semiconductor makers – Alliance for Automotive Innovation represents the full auto industry, a sector supporting 10 million American jobs and five percent of the economy. Active in Washington, D.C. and all 50 states, the association is committed to a cleaner, safer and smarter personal transportation future. www.autosinnovate.org