Comment from William Muir
William MuirOpposeIndividual
Summary: A commercial truck driver with over 23 years of experience argues that automatic emergency braking systems are dangerous and can create unsafe situations by reacting to shadows or terrain. The commenter suggests that the government should focus on improving driver training and skill rating programs instead of implementing these automated systems.
I have been driving a commercial vehicle for over 23 years with over 4 million miles all accident free.
My opinion is that the automated emergency braking system is a dangerous system that has the potential to put not only the drivers at risk but also the general public as well.
When you take the "human factor" out of the decision making process during what can most definitely be classified as ever changing environment, such as driving a commercial vehicle, the ramifications could be catastrophic. I personally have been operating a vehicle with the braking system and have multiple incidents in which the braking system has created an unsafe situation.
For example, I was traveling on Interstate 81 in Virginia. There was absolutely no one in front of me and the braking system slammed on my brakes because of a shadow on the road. When the braking system activated, I went from 65mph to 40 mph with absolutely no warning whatsoever. This action caused the vehicles behind me to almost collide with my trailer.
I have also had occasions where I was passing a slow vehicle on a curve. The braking system activated almost causing me to lose control of my vehicle and hit the vehicle in which I was passing.
These are just a couple of the hundreds of occasions where I have been placed in an unsafe position because of this system operating incorrectly. This system does not take into account weather or terrain. This system ONLY knows how to do is slam on the brakes when obstacles appear in front of the vehicle.
In my opinion, the problem isn't the fact that or brakes don't work. The problem is that there are too many drivers out on the road with little or no training. They were not taught properly and have fallen into some very dangerous habits which is causing incidents on the roadway.
If you truly want to work on the root of the issue then maybe you need to address the elephant in the room. We need a more comprehensive training program for drivers as well as a graduated system for rating skill levels in order to weed out the ones that frankly shouldn't be driving a commercial vehicle.