It’s no secret that pickup trucks are extremely popular in the United States, and they’ve steadily grown over the years in both size and weight. A recent study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) showed that automatic emergency braking systems “dramatically” reduced rear-end collisions involving trucks. Unfortunately, the study also found that many pickups on the road do not have this feature.
What exactly dramatically mean in this state? IIHS Vice President of Research Jessica Cicchino found a 43 percent lower rate of rear-end collisions in pickup trucks equipped with automatic emergency braking (AEB) systems. Injuries from rear-end collisions were 42 percent lower. And the rate of rear-end crashes with serious injury or death fell by 77 percent. However, IIHS noted that the 77 percent figure was not statistically significant.
The data was collected by examining crashes reported by police in 25 states over a four-year period, from 2017 to 2020. The exact number of crashes used for this study was not disclosed, nor were their specific locations.
“These figures confirm that AEB is reducing accidents for pickups, as it does for cars, SUVs and large trucks,” said Cicchino. “
Unfortunately, the study claims that such a system in trucks has been slow to materialize. IIHS concludes, of all pickup trucks registered on the road in 2021, only 5 percent will have an automatic braking system. Meanwhile, 10 percent of registered cars and 18 percent of SUVs are equipped with AEB. Going forward, this research shows that larger trucks with a gross vehicle weight of more than 8,500 pounds will not be included in a voluntary agreement to require AEB systems until 2025. Even larger trucks weighing more than 10,000 pounds are not included in the agreement at all. .
Currently, new full-size pickup trucks from Ford, Chevrolet, GMC, Ram, Toyota, Nissan, and Honda offer standard edition AEB systems in the US.
