Toyota and Lexus to make automatic braking standard from 2017

To reduce road accidents and injuries, the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration (NHTSA) and Insurance Instititue for Highway Safety (IIHS) recently announced it mandatory for all vehicles to come fitted with automatic braking by 2022. 

In light of the new regulation passed in the United States, Toyota and Lexus were the first to announce the addition of the new feature on nearly all its cars by 2017. In fact, this isn’t the only feature that will come as standard on majority Toyota and Lexus models. Toyota Safety Sense and Lexus Safety System will also come as standard fitment on most of its models. The car maker also announced that nearly 25 out of the 30 models on sale in the US, will come with these features, with the exception of the Lexus GX, Toyota Mirai, 4Runner, 86 and Scion iA. 

In a statement, Jim Lentz, Toyota’s North America chief said, “High-level driver assist technologies can do more than help protect people in the event of a crash; they can help prevent some crashes from ever happening in the first place."

While Toyota and Lexus are the first ones to make the announcement, other manufacturers too will support the pledge in a bid to make highways safer. While this law is only restricted to United States now, Toyota might just bring the feature on its premium cars in a bid to earn some brownie points. 

Talking about safety in India, the Government has made ABS and CBS mandatory on all two-wheelers starting April 2018. It is small steps like these that will lead to a big change in reducing road accidents across the globe.