Autoweek Asks: What new safety tech item should be mandatory?

It wasn't long ago that backup cameras were scoffed at as nanny tech for those with poor parking skills, but it's difficult to imagine a new car on sale today without a backup camera installed from the factory. From a sales and marketing perspective, skipping on backup cameras, or even making them a costly option, would be a marketing disaster that would automatically earn poor grades in various car review publications — akin to offering a new car today without a passenger airbag. But passenger-side airbags themselves were an item associated with luxury cars as late as the early 1990s — a staple in premium sedans but by no means universal.

Now, in 2019, the U.N. Economic Commission for Europe, aka UNECE, wants to make automatic emergency braking systems, or AEBS, standard equipment in all cars in the European Union and several other regions starting in 2020. While the U.S. itself is not a party to the treaty that the proposed U.N regulation builds upon, a group of 20 major automakers accounting for over 90 percent of all new cars on the road have made the same pledge for the U.S. by 2022.

By all accounts, it looks like AEB systems will be the next indispensable safety item, and how these systems operate still varies widely, which is why the U.N. is stepping in to set requirements for the method of their operation. 

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