Since when does impossibility come into consideration when regulators and legislators put their heads together?

Automakers call for 'practically impossible' automatic emergency braking rule to be reconsidered

A trade group representing major automakers on Monday called for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to reconsider a new regulation issued this past spring that requires nearly all new cars and trucks to have advanced automatic emergency braking systems by 2029.

The group argues that the regulation, which was adopted in April and would require all cars and trucks to be able to stop and avoid hitting vehicles in front of them while moving at speeds of up to 62 mph, is "practically impossible with available technology."

The NHTSA rule came in response to direction by Congress, which included a provision in the 2021 infrastructure law that directed the agency to develop a regulation establishing minimum performance standards for automatic emergency braking (AEB) systems. AEB uses sensors like cameras and radar to detect when a vehicle is close to crashing and automatically applies the brakes if the driver hasn't done so.

The trade group said NHTSA's requirements at higher driving speeds will result in vehicles "automatically applying the brakes far in advance of what a typical driver and others on the road would expect" and would likely result in rear-end collisions.

It also argued that NHTSA "vastly underestimated the necessary and costly hardware and software change required for vehicles to comply with the rule (something that will increase the cost of vehicles for consumers)."

Alliance for Automotive Innovation CEO John Bozzella said in the letter to Congress that the rule "will require more costly systems that won't improve driver or pedestrian safety."

"Here's what I (regrettably) conclude will happen: driving AEB equipped vehicles in the U.S. under NHTSA's new standard will become unpredictable, erratic and will frustrate or flummox drivers," Bozzella wrote.

"Yes, this rule will make vehicles more expensive, but the real issue isn't cost – it's cost/benefit. NHTSA's action will require more costly systems that won't improve driver or pedestrian safety, which is why we are asking the agency to reopen the proceeding and make these necessary corrections," he added.

The NHSTA guestimates that its new rule will save 860 lives annually — there were 35,740 killed traffic accidents in 2023.

Just last month I posted on California’s insane new law that requires all freight trains switch from diesel to electric by 2035, despite the fact that no such engines exist, and won’t exist 2035, if ever — the physics don’t allow it. I suspect that some of the people behind these impossible mandates know that they can’t be met, and intend to use them to destroy the modern world, but Hanlon’s law is probably the real answer to this idiocy: never attribute to malice what can be explained through stupidity. Unfortunately for us, the result is the same, antidisirregardless.