In April 2024, the National Highway Traffic Administration (NHTSA) officially finalized a new Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard – FMVSS No. 127 – that will make automatic emergency braking required as standard equipment on all passenger cars and light trucks with a gross vehicle weight rating of 10,000 pounds or less by September 2029. This decision is expected to save at least 360 lives a year, but still drew criticism from the Ford backed lobby group known as the Alliance for Automotive Innovation (AAI), which asked the NHTSA to reconsider its decision, a request that it denied, prompting a lawsuit. Now, that same rule has been put on hold by the Trump administration.
The Trump administration has delayed the effective date of this new standard to March 20, 2025, a decision that will reportedly allow it to review criticisms levied by AAI, as well as Toyota, Volkswagen Group, and various other entities. In the coming weeks, the Trump administration will review the rule and consider the new regulations that it lays forth, in addition to requests from involved parties.
While AAI supports the implementation of automatic emergency braking technology in new vehicles, it calls this rule unnecessary, pointing to the fact that automakers have already invested $1 billion in AEB tech and voluntarily agreed to deploy that technology on all new vehicles by 2025 back in 2016 – a goal that has since been met.
This is one of several proposed policy changes coming from the Trump administration that could impact Ford and its peers in the coming months and years. That list also includes the administration’s reported desire to potentially nullify the contract between Oshkosh Defense and USPS to deliver all-electric mail carriers, levy potential tariffs on vehicles imported into the U.S. from places like Canada and Mexico, and recent moves to roll back or nix Biden-era policies on EVs and fuel economy standards.
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