Japan to make automatic brakes mandatory for new cars from Nov 2021

so how can we use old car after 2025??

I hope this doesn't dramatically increase the prices of the basic kei-on trucks, vans and cars. Mine are just used for hauling stuff at work. It'd be nice if they left a few non-automatic break ones for us that don't want it.

I hope they will not ban 80s 90s cars...

looks like a trick to force people to buy new car.

I like how the guy in the photo looks way too old to be driving a car.

Looks like this is the natural way to go, and 80% of new cars have automatic braking already, it says.

At least two problems do appear to occur.

One is as the article states, your driving might become complacent if you know the car will brake for you.

The second is pedestrians beginning to believe that all cars will stop for them, anywhere. This could cause gridlock in towns and cities; in addition, criminals could even stop your car just by walking in front of it.

 or if a driver stamps (sic) on the gas pedal, the ministry said.

Which is what the old folks do. So more kids will get run over. Solution is to stop old

folks from driving, period. If 80% of cars have the equipment already and still there

are so many deaths caused by old men mostly then clearly the automatic breaks is not

the solution.

Safer cars are good, I suppose, but so long as you can still shaken an old car without auto brakes, it won't affect me.

The ministry also said Tuesday a total of 80 car accidents reported in Japan in January to September this year were caused by drivers apparently placing too much confidence in automatic brakes, with 18 of them resulting in injuries or death.

That sounds like people in accidents trying to blame the car to lessen their responsibility/punishment. I have experienced auto brakes in a Subaru demo at a shopping center. Even a slow speed, the braking was very hard. A strong yank on the seat belt, nothing you would ever want to experience on a regular basis from the way you drive. We had a little kei with autobrakes on a lease for three years, but never engaged the system in 30,000kms.

so how can we use old car after 2025??

That won't apply to a car you bought before the law was started.

I'm surprised ABS isn't a standard in Japan.

No idea what will happen to older cars but probably just enforce a higher insurance to those cars cause they generate more carbon and is technically less safe.

@Kag

ABS means anti-lock braking system, not automatic.

Hmmm, well, that's not too good. "automatic brakes do not operate if a driver stamps on the gas pedal, the ministry said." Usually the main problem is they mistake the gas for brake and stomp it.

The safer cars are the better, no argument here.

But inquiring minds want to know why they should start this now..

Is this because Kozo Iizuka, x - bureaucrat, who killed a mother and her daughter my car, said the society had to work harder to make it easier for elderly people to go out more?

Making the exams for driver's license harder and the more frequent is the first thing they should do.

You can't just install automatic brakes in cars. How do you drive older cars?

How do you drive older cars?

The same way you always have. Put your seatbelt on and go.

 It'd be nice if they left a few non-automatic break ones for us that don't want it.

Speed's grandfather circa 1968, "It'd be nice if they left a few without seatbelts for us that don't want it".

gogogo, although you can actually install an automatic braking system into an older car if you want to, that is not what the new law mandates. It may in the future, perhaps.

You can continue to drive an older car as before, but all new cars in the showrooms will be required to have the system factory-fitted as standard, as the article says.

Government, instead of making license renewal harder, push all responsibilities to the car manufacturers.

Why can't they just ban old people driving and stop punishing everyone else.... oh wait...

How about banning drivers over a certain age, period.

"At the same time, Akaba warned of accidents that can be caused by having too much trust in automatic brake systems and reiterated calls for careful driving."

Reminds me of the spoof commercials in the original Robocop movies:

'10 minutes in the California sun can give you skin cancer. Put this product all over your body and spend your time outdoors freely' (product may give you cancer).

And why use an elderly driver in the simulation? While it is known accidents involving elderly drivers are on the rise, surely one is not needed to test an auto breaking system. Were they like, "Go ahead, sir... we know there's a wall, but push the one of the right. No, not the break... push the other one. Go ahead. Move forward. Hit the wall."

Fluff piece.

The only pertinent section is "automatic brakes do not operate if the camera installed in the car cannot recognize objects in the dark, or if a pedestrian or another car emerges abruptly, or if a driver stamps on the gas pedal, the ministry said."

This means that it's mostly meaningless and will not result in the supposed desired outcome.

But automatic brakes do not operate if (...), or if a driver stamps on the gas pedal, the ministry said.

So how are they supposed to prevent these accidents where an elderly guy steps on the gas instead of the brake, which is the typical scenario we read about? Sounds like a non-solution to me.

Make people smart, not cars.

It’s apparently a Japanese car for the Japanese market so wouldn’t the driver be the younger guy

The guy in red sells the cars to semi-blind deaf grandpas in their late 90's. He demonstrates the brakes indoor, in front of a fabric screen... After work he goes home by train. Only oldies want to buy cars in Japan these days. Youths are not interested and this salesman in particular, because he knows what kind of senile drivers there are on the roads...

Subject to the ministry's new regulation are new and remodeled cars that are manufactured in Japan and will be sold from November 2021. Models already on the market will be required to be equipped with automatic brake systems from December 2025.

This is confusing.  A new car is one sold out of a dealer new car shop, what exactly is a remodeled car?  And what are cars 'already on the market' - used cars?

Or - by new car, do they mean those which haven't yet been designed?  But even then, what are remodeled cars?

If you are mistaking the accelerator for brakes, you shouldn't be driving.

If you are "stomping" on the brakes or the accelerator, you shouldn't be driving.

If you depend on technology to stop you from running into walls with your car, you shouldn't be driving.

Humans are flawed. We will make mistakes, no matter how much of a professional driver we all think we are. Even the super elite drivers that comment on JT articles will at some point make a mistake while driving. Its just human nature. No matter how many years/kilometers you have driven without error, at some point you will make a mistake.

I have had an accident before. It was my fault, even though at the time i wanted to blame the car in front of me for emergency braking. I learned, and now i leave space even in slow moving traffic.

Another time i was backing into a parking spot, foot feathering the brake when suddenly my car started reversing faster. Instinct kicked in and i mashed the brake as hard as i could but it didnt have any effect. It took me half a second to realise that both cars on either side of me were pulling out of their parking spots in unison, giving the illusion that i was moving despite my foot being hard on the brake. In that instant i knew just how it must feel for someone who accidentally pressed the accelerator instead of the brake pedal. Armchair commentators can say "why dont they realise they are accelerating and stamp the other pedal!!?" But its not like that; your brain goes into defense mode and stops listening to reason. I was 35 when this happened, so should i just hand my license in and say i'm a danger on the road?

Great post afanofjapan. If not every day, then at least once a week I encounter some strange combination of factors on the roads, some of which are like a slap in the face, or a wake-up call to stay conscious at all times. Sudden disorientation like yours is mega scary. I am generally a pretty confident driver, having driven for over fifty years, but sudden things do appear from unexpected angles, so you have to stay humble and keep 360-degree safety margins. Last year I twice encountered cars coming towards me in the fast lane on the wrong side of the carriageway for example, in a period of just three months.