The Australian Government should mandate autonomous emergency braking for new trucks and extend mandatory electronic stability control to new rigid trucks.

The Government’s regulation impact statement on autonomous emergency braking (AEBS) concludes that mandating these technologies would:

• save 102 lives
• prevent 2,564 serious injuries
• prevent 7,017 minor injuries.

The ATA’s submission in response to the RIS endorses mandatory advanced braking. It’s one of our key safety priorities.

The submission makes three technical recommendations about work that needs to be done before the mandatory requirements come into force.

It recommends that the introduction of mandatory AEBS for prime movers should be delayed one year, until November 2021 for new vehicle models and November 2023 for new vehicles generally, to enable this work to be completed.

Mandatory AEBS and ESC for rigid trucks would come into force in November 2020 for new vehicle models and November 2022 for all new vehicles.