By Georgia Eather
Edited for online by Thomas Brakstad

Authorities hope installing autonomous emergency braking (AEB) systems in cars will bring down Queensland’s road toll, which has reached almost 100 people in the first four months of 2013.

The Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP) wants to make AEB systems mandatory in all passenger cars nationwide.

ANCAP chief executive Nicholas Clarke says the technology has the potential to improve driver reaction times and in turn save lives.

“It’s a breaking system that scans the road in front of a vehicle and picks up obstacles like pedestrians, other cars and other obstructions,” he says.

“If the driver doesn’t respond to that obstruction the emergency breaking system will break the car and stop it before it hits the obstacle or at least reduce the speed.”

A demonstration of how the technology works in action. Uploaded to YouTube by sicurauto

QUT News reported last week that as Queensland Police work to try and reduce the death toll on the state’s roads, officers could get more help with the new technology.

Mr Clarke says Australia should follow the examples from overseas and make AEB mandatory.

“The technology is already in place in quite a number of vehicles in Europe where it’s showing that it is a life saver, and the road death numbers are falling in some of those countries where the autonomous emergency breaking is widespread,” he says.

Mr Clarke is disappointed some of the cars equipped with AEB in Europe comes to Australia without the technology.

This is how AEB works. Uploaded to YouTube by euroncapcom

Centre for Accident Research and Road Safety Queensland professor Andry Rakotonirainy says the AEB systems will help distracted drivers, especially learner drivers.

“The driver doesn’t have to do anything – the car will do it for them,” he says.

RACQ spokesman Steven Spalding says the technology will save lives and is affordable for everyone.

“A number of manufactures are using this in really quite affordable vehicles, so it’s not only a technology for prestige vehicle,” he says.