The most difficult part of the FMVSS 127 is the Automatic Emergency Braking Test (PAEB) at night, which, unlike the new EU AEB regulations, must operate in total darkness. More than 70 percent of the pedestrians struck and killed by motorists are at night, according to the NHTSA.
Protection of pedestrians at night “will probably require additional progress and developments in sensor technologies,” said Nadine Wong, director of track tests at an independent test company. Dynamic research. Working from a test track located 15 miles north of Bakersfield, California, Dynamic Research already leads FMVSS 127 tests For customers. “We know that there are currently vehicles that are already getting closer to the standard”, said Wong.
The NHTSA recognizes that the FMVSS 127 is “technologically restrictive”, but underlines that the “standard is achievable”.
While the industry should pay $ 354 million in software development costs, the American company would benefit from $ 7.26 billion, according to the NHSTA, citing cost reductions for the sector. “Negative externalities” Serious car accidents such as calls for emergency services, medical care, administrative insurance costs, work costs and legal costs.
“Considering that car construction is the largest American manufacturing sector, employs 10 million Americans, generates 5 % of American GDP and injects $ 1,000 billion into the economy each year,” said Chase, “it is remarkable that [the auto industry] would not be able to meet the requirements of the AEB rule by September 2029. ”
In a press release, William Wallace, Director of Security Promotion at Consumer Report, agrees: “It is deeply disappointing that car manufacturers intend to block this automatic emergency braking rule that saves lives. »»
Shaun Kildare, research director at Defenders of Road Safety and Automobileagree. “When they say: ‘It is impracticable, we can never respect this standard’, it is false because some car manufacturers already sell vehicles in the United States who do it,” he says, “and they sell Certainly vehicles abroad that do it. [Auto companies] I just don’t want to pay for this on each vehicle.
However, Bozzella, of the Alliance, described the “disastrous” FMVSS 127 which “will constantly frustrate – and unnecessarily – the drivers. [and] make vehicles more expensive. Fairly strangely, Bozzella also claims that the stricter standard, stricter even than that equivalent in the EU, “will not really improve the safety of drivers or pedestrians”.
However, the trial of the alliance should fail, says Chase. “The NHTSA is downpour at risk. They like everything to be buttoned. They would not have published this rule if they thought it could be easily disputed.
At the end of last year, The NHTSA has published a series of studies showing that more than 860,000 lives have been saved thanks to federal safety vehicle safety standards since 1968. Front inflatable cushions alone saved more than 50,000 lives over a period of 30 years, NHTSA estimates.
President Trump appointed Steven Bradbury be the transport secretary. Bradbury is a member of the right -wing reflection group Heritage Foundation, who wrote 2025 projectA government project of more than 900 pages that Trump disowned in the elections.
The 2025 project transport plans include the reduction of fuel economy standards and the abolition of road expenditure in pedestrian and cycle projects. The 2025 project was also in favor of a smaller government and less regulations, a request likely to be reinforced by Department of Elon Musk government efficiencyor DOGE.
We do not know exactly what President Trump, the dowry or the DOGE will do with the FMVSS 127, but, says Norton, also author of a Autonomous Driving Book“If we cannot convince car manufacturers to accept automation of vehicles for security reasons, we cannot expect them to take fully robotic cars seriously.”
