3 On Your Side: Insurance Institute Tests Auto-Brake Technology
By Jim Donovan
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- For years crash tests have been conducted on vehicles to give an idea of which models will protect you the most during an accident. But now tests are evaluating technology that can keep you out of a crash in the first place.
More and more vehicles are being designed with auto brakes. Those are brakes that will engage without a driver having to do a thing, if the car about to hit something.
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety is known for its crash test safety ratings. But as cars get smarter there's a growing need to look beyond just crashworthiness to crash prevention. David Zuby of the Institute says, "technology that's available to us today that was not available 30 years ago is making it possible to focus on crash avoidance."
14 vehicles designed with auto-brake technology to avoid a front end collision have just earned the Institute's superior ranking.
In a report released today, the 2016 Acura MDX and RLX, the BMW X3, the Mazda CX5, as well as the 2015 Mercedes C and E class vehicles scored the highest.
The Institute tested the cars at 12 to 25 miles per hour
About half of new 2015 vehicles have available front crash prevention technology and roughly 1 in 4 have available auto braking. Which Zuby says are "potentially game changing technologies."
In fact the Institute is investing $30 million dollars in their testing facilities to keep up with ever smarter cars which are increasingly working to keep themselves out of a crash.
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