Rep. Mike Collins, R-Ga., who also owns a trucking company, invested in dozens of trucks equipped with automatic emergency brakes because he hoped the technology would increase safety. However, the congressman has found AEBs to be significantly flawed.
“Man, I have a boatload of them that I’d love to get rid of,” Collins said.
Collins’ comment came during a House Highways and Transit Subcommittee hearing on Wednesday, July 24. The hearing was aimed at examining the U.S. Department of Transportation’s regulatory and administrative agenda. Requiring manufacturers to equip vehicles with automatic emergency brakes has been among the DOT’s priorities.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration are projected to issue a final rule in 2025 that will eventually require new trucks to be equipped with automatic emergency brakes.
OOIDA Executive Vice President Lewie Pugh, who was testifying on behalf of small-business truckers, agreed with Collins that the technology has not been perfected.
“They’re not foolproof,” Pugh said. “We have constant false activations … I drove a truck (with AEB technology) from Reno last year back to Kansas City. It was constantly going off, and there was nothing around.”
Rep. Thomas Kean Jr., R-N.J., noted that when Congress directed the DOT to move forward with a rulemaking for automatic emergency brakes, the agencies were required to consult with truck drivers about the effectiveness of the technology.
Pugh said that consultation never occurred.
“They have not reached out to drivers or spoken with drivers at all,” Pugh said. “Also, since this has come out, NHTSA opened an investigation into false activations of these products. So, they’re continuing to move forward with a rule they know they have a problem with. They know there are false activations.”
Pugh said many OOIDA members have reported instances where the false activations have led to the truck being rear-ended or nearly rear-ended by a passenger vehicle.
“Trucks are completely different than cars,” Pugh said. “And just because a technology works well on a car doesn’t mean it’s going to work well on a truck. Every load and every type of truck is different as far as weight and how the product moves. You take a tanker, there’s liquid in there moving around. So the way you have to stop (a tanker) is completely different than how you’d have stop a load of paper towels in a van trailer.” LL
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