IIHS President: Tech Not Silver Bullet for Safety

IIHS President: Tech Not Silver Bullet for SafetyWASHINGTON, D.C. — Many advanced technologies can reduce the number of lives lost on U.S. roads, but full or partial automation is not one of them, David Harkey, president of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), said in a virtual Capitol Hill briefing March 7. “We firmly believe in technology for vehicle safety and the potential it has to reduce the tragic toll on our roadways,” Harkey said. IIHS research has shown that forward collision warning and automatic emergency braking (AEB) slash rear-end vehicle-to-vehicle crashes by 27 and 50 percent, respectively, Harkey said. Similarly, AEB systems that can recognize and brake to avoid people reduce pedestrian crashes by 27 percent. However, crash data have not shown similar benefits for the Level 2 partial automation systems that are currently on the market.