82 car accidents caused by automatic brake malfunctions reported in Japan last year

I’m with Burning Bush. It’s more likely the accidents were caused by drivers relying on the automated system.

On the other hand, you have to wonder if the the system is faulty. Is TAKATA involved in the manufacturing?

Japan has pushed for passenger cars to be equipped with automatic braking systems to curb accidents.

For some insurance, they will asked whether your car have AEB (Autonomous Emergency Braking), your insurance premium will become less if your car have this. Now we know it can cause accident and will make your insurance premium higher in following year.

Accidents caused by alert, mindful, experienced drivers:

Zero

I would question that statement. In fact i am pretty sure that a lot more accidents are caused by drivers who believed they were being alert and mindful, with experience. That's why they are called "accidents". Humans are not perfect. Our brains are smart but prone to messing up.

Computers arent perfect either, especially when trying to deal with imperfect scenarios, more importantly, other human drivers.

Get off the freaking cell phones! How many accidents were caused by people not paying attention.

I say 82 is not a high number considering Japan has a driving fatality rate per billion miles driven on par with the USA, even though average speed limits are 30-40% lower.

Japan has pushed for passenger cars to be equipped with automatic braking systems to curb accidents. But the data suggest that they are not yet perfect in terms of traffic safety.

Classic case of the dumbing down of society. The REAL problem is that people are becoming way too dependent on technology to save them from their own stupidity. If you are so incompetent, that you NEED an automatic braking system to stop you from running into walls and convenience stores, then you have NO BUSINESS being behind the wheel PERIOD. Save us all from your poor driving skills and take the fricken bus. Bust most of all, stop blaming technology for your own mistakes.

I'm an alert, mindful, and experienced driver but have been hit by two cars in the past few months.

Both were caused by the OTHER drivers not paying attention. One distracted by a soccer game off to the side of the road when he veered into my lane and hit me. The other was looking down at his cellphone and went full speed through a stop side and slammed into the side of my car.

Accidents happen even to good drivers with or without AEB.

They are classified as 'driver assist', not 'driverless control'.

About as much use as those driverless cars that now need someone watching the road fulltime, ready to take over...

Do the cars have black-box type logs that can determine the data the car had and whether the system operated or not? If it is an option, it will be human nature to blame the car.

I don't know about the systems "activating unexpectedly" but activating unnecessarily and causing an accident that would not have happened otherwise is a concern. Sometimes its a matter of phrasing the question properly.

My wife has one in her kei car. It has a camera where the rear view mirror is, and so does not operate when the wipers are on or in snow or rain. A light comes on on the dash to indicate that it is off.

just wait for self-driving cars!

I knew an old guy, changed his car solely because he wanted "automatic brakes", and because every time he renewed his license, the stazi tried to persuade him to give up driving.. Anyhoo, his new car had this system, and as this system was controlled by a computer, no advice from a mere human like me would cut ice.

So one day he decided to test this system, fortunately in a car park where there was less risk to kill anyone. He lined the car up facing a wall and went for it. Not high speed, just at a pace where, should the fan get splattered, no serious harm would be done. I can imagine the look of horror on his face when.... nothing happened and he had to step on the brake pedal. He was most annoyed that his 2+ million yen investment was for nothing, he felt conned. So I asked him to read the users manual...... "these systems may not work in the following situations..........."

No sympathy really, if people are thinking like this then quit driving, the tech isn't there yet.

I’m with Burning Bush. It’s more likely the accidents were caused by drivers relying on the automated system.

Of those 82, how many were attributed to old folks stepping on the wrong peddle ?

I would still rather have it than not.

Also, I would like to see a breakdown by brand.

Subaru's Eyesight 3.0 is pretty mature by now.

Do the cars have black-box type logs that can determine the data the car had and whether the system operated or not? 

Most cars these days are drive-by-wire, meaning that there is no mechanical connection between the driver and the car's physical control mechanism. All driver's inputs are interpreted by a computer and the computer sends signals the mechanisms that drive the car. Its much like how an RC car works but a bit more sophisticated.

Technically, the reason for all of this is to prevent the driver from wrecking the car by doing something that is beyond its design parameters. For example, in one of my cars, if I start the car, and floor the accelerator while the engine is still cold, the response is governed and the engine won't rev past certain point.

In many cars, they have included safety features into the programming so that the car won't respond to an input that maybe considered dangerous. Again, with the same car, if I gun the throttle, traction control kicks in to make sure that all four tires have grip before feeding power to them.

All of this governed a logged by the computer (ECU), so if someone claimed that they stepped on the brakes and the car accelerated instead of stopped, they can easy download the last few user inputs.

All of this is way to Orwellian to me. That's why I prefer driving my other car which is older and controlled by old fashion cables and hydraulics. No computer telling me how I should drive, hence I don't depend on it to drive my car for me.

how many were attributed to old folks stepping on the wrong peddle ?

Ah, the old conundrum. Which to choose? 'Break' or 'brake'? 'Pedal' or 'peddle'?