Within three years all new vehicles must be equipped with 11 advanced safety features, such as advanced emergency braking (AEB), lane-keeping system, over-ridable intelligent speed assistance or driver's distraction recognition, as proposed by The European Commission.
Coinciding with the European Commission’s announcement, Thatcham Research, the motor insurers’ automotive research centre, called on the UK government and carmakers to not stall on the mandatory fitment of AEB on all cars and vans.
A further four features will follow a few years after 2021 with the European Commission explaining that such features offered significant potential to compensate for human errors, a major factor in most road accidents.
The full list of proposed mandatory new safety features includes:
· Advanced emergency braking (cars),
· Alcohol interlock installation facilitation (cars, vans, trucks, buses),
· Drowsiness and attention detection (cars, vans, trucks, buses),
· Distraction recognition / prevention (cars, vans, trucks, buses),
· Event (accident) data recorder (cars and vans),
· Emergency stop signal (cars, vans, trucks, buses),
· Full-width frontal occupant protection crash test – improved seatbelts (cars and vans),
· Head impact zone enlargement for pedestrians and cyclists – safety glass in case of crash (cars and vans),
· Intelligent speed assistance (cars, vans, trucks, buses),
· Lane keeping assist (cars, vans),
· Pole side impact occupant protection (cars, vans),
· Reversing camera or detection system (cars, vans, trucks, buses),
· Tyre pressure monitoring system (vans, trucks, buses),
· Vulnerable road user detection and warning on front and side of vehicle (trucks and buses)
· Vulnerable road user improved direct vision from driver’s position (trucks and buses).