You've probably experienced an emergency braking situation before, whether due to inattention or the carelessness of others. Today, however, there are safety systems to prevent such situations from becoming serious accidents. Autonomous emergency braking systems, or AEB, promise to reduce speed or even bring the car to a complete stop if a potential collision is detected.

Through sensors located on the front of the vehicle, obstacles in the car's path are identified, and the distance and speed of the objects are calculated. From there, the system analyzes the best course of action to take: either stopping the vehicle completely or applying pressure to the brakes to reduce its speed.

Complete vehicle stopping is generally limited to low speeds; in some cases, such as with Volvo, the system is limited to 50 km/h. At higher speeds, the system reduces speed to minimize the effects of a collision.

Volvo has been a pioneer and benchmark in the development of safety systems, and already offers automatic braking in its models. Around the world, all major automakers already apply the technology, while in Brazil few domestically manufactured models offer the braking assistant. This is the case with the Ford Focus Titanium Plus, the most affordable option on the national market that has the technology.

In the US, an agreement has already been signed between more than 20 automakers committing to incorporating the system as a standard feature in their vehicles starting in 2022. In our country, just as happened with ABS and airbags, which were once optional and exclusive to luxury models, this type of electronic assistance tends to have a lower cost in the future and may also become a standard feature in our vehicles.

According to the IIHS (Insurance Institute for Highway Safety), autonomous braking systems can reduce accidents by up to 35%. EuroNCAP, an institution that evaluates the safety level of motor vehicles, already considers this technology when scoring its tests.

Below you can see the EuroNCAP test results for some vehicles equipped with AEB, such as the Ford Focus:

The AEB has obtained very satisfactory results in tests and in use, and soon the technology should become more accessible in the country. This could help reduce the high statistics of fatal accidents in Brazil.