The European Parliament has given its backing to a call for driver assistance systems such as autonomous emergency braking to be made standard on new cars.

European Parliament backs call for making driver assistance systems compulsory

Last month saw the Parliament’s Transport committee author and approve a non-binding resolution saying all new cars should be equipped with driver-assistance systems capable of detecting pedestrians, braking automatically or adapting the speed and the resolution has now received full backing of the resolution.

The resolution follows a report by the European Commission, “Saving Lives: Boosting Car Safety in the EU” with the Commission expected to publish its final legal proposals for revised vehicle safety standards by March next year. Those plans would then need to be approved by EU member states and the Parliament.

The move was welcomed by the European Transport Safety Council, which highlighted that mandatory safety standards for new cars sold on the European market have not been updated since 2009.

ETSC executive director Antonio Avenoso commented: “These new vehicle safety measures are the EU’s best hope for restarting progress on road safety in Europe. But they will take several years to take effect and even longer before the majority of cars on our roads all have these features. After several years of foot dragging, it is now absolutely critical that the European Commission publishes its proposals without any further delay.

“Making these proposed technologies mandatory could be as important as the introduction of the seat belt in safety terms, so we want to thank MEPs for taking such a positive stance on this issue.”