New vehicle safety rules: auto industry reacts to European Parliament vote

Yesterday’s vote by the lead Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) Committee marks an important step towards adopting this legislation.

“We welcome the willingness of MEPs to enter rapidly into inter-institutional negotiations on this legislation, which is key to further improving road safety,” stated ACEA Secretary General, Erik Jonnaert.

Indeed, ACEA supports a broad range of the safety measures voted upon by IMCO, including the requirement that all new cars come equipped with autonomous emergency braking (AEB), drowsiness and attention detection systems, reversing detection for cars and vans, emergency stop signals, and lane departure warning systems.

However, auto manufacturers are concerned about the proposed time between the entry into force of the regulation and the moment it applies. This should be aligned with product development time in a pragmatic way, allowing at least 36 months before application, ACEA cautions.

Jonnaert: “Despite a three-fold increase in traffic, road safety in Europe has improved significantly in the last 30 years. Maintaining this trend is important for an industry that prides itself on designing, producing and selling safe vehicles in probably one of the most demanding markets in the world.”