A recent research project was conducted by AAA on AEB (Automatic Emergency Braking) systems and here is how they arrived at their findings.
They wanted to see how the reverse braking system reacted if a driver was backing out of their driveway/parking lot and didn’t have a clear vision due to other cars blocking their sight and a car they couldn’t see was oncoming. The vehicle automatically applied the brakes 65% of the time and prevented a collision 2.5% of the time.
They also wanted to see how well the AEB system did if a small child was behind the car while the driver was backing up without clear vision. The brakes were applied 75% of the time and collision was prevented 50% of the time.
The bottom line is…DO NOT rely solely on these Automatic Emergency Braking Systems. Always make sure you can see clearly before backing up. These systems need to be more reliable…100% of the time…in order for us to trust them when backing up.
The good news is that they have been able to reduce a good portion of rear-end collisions but until they can do it 100% of the time, please don’t take chances on hurting others or yourself!