Blumenthal, Markey Applaud Toyota Commitment to Installing Automatic Braking on Most Vehicles by 2017

(Hartford, CT) – U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) today released the following statement after Toyota announced that almost all Toyota and Lexus vehicles will come standard with automatic emergency braking by 2017. The news follows an announcement last week by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) and Insurance Institute for Highway Safety that 20 automakers have committed to make automatic emergency braking standard on all new cars by 2022. 

“We are pleased that by the end of 2017, nearly all new Toyota and Lexus vehicles will come standard with emergency braking technology. In light of NHTSA’s slow and unsteady safety approach, it seems, unfortunately, that automakers and consumer demand will drive safety advances – not the regulators charged with doing so. We urge NHTSA once again to make automatic emergency braking and forward collision warning technologies standard and mandatory in all new vehicles, and we will seek measures to ensure these lifesaving technologies are available to all drivers ahead of the 2022 deadline.”

Blumenthal and Markey are members of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.

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