The Insurance coverage Institute for Freeway Security mentioned many fashions’ automated braking methods carry out poorly in nighttime exams.
The examine, launched Tuesday, comes amidst climbing site visitors deaths within the U.S., with 2021 having the very best quantity killed on U.S. roads in a single yr since 2005.
Of the 23 fashions examined, solely 4 earned a Superior ranking from the IIHS, and greater than half earned a Fundamental Rating or No Credit score.
David Harkey, president of IIHS, likened the examine’s four-level grading scheme to letter grades in lecturers – with Superior being an A and No Credit score being an F. In essence, this implies a majority of fashions both failed or got here close to failing the nighttime check.
The 4 automobiles that earned Superior had been the Ford Mustang Mach-E, Nissan Pathfinder, Toyota Camry and Toyota Highlander.
The Chevrolet Malibu, Honda Pilot, Nissan Altima and Toyota Tacoma all acquired No Credit score.
Regardless of their poor efficiency at night time, 19 of the 23 automobiles earned excessive marks in comparable daytime exams. Harkey mentioned it might be attributable to automakers primarily specializing in daytime situations when designing automatic-brake methods.
“It is simply a kind of issues the place it was not entrance of thoughts,” Harkey informed Automotive Information. “You begin with the fundamentals of ‘How can we make this product work for simpler situations?’ ”
One development inside the examine was an absence of automaker consistency. In lots of circumstances, two automobiles belonging to the identical model scored drastically completely different. For instance, the Toyota Highlander earned a Superior ranking, whereas the Toyota Tacoma acquired No Credit score.
Harkey mentioned the completely different strategies utilized to every mannequin’s automatic-brake methods might be responsible.
“The one factor that is clear just isn’t all methods are equal,” Harkey mentioned. “That is the rationale we have to consider each mannequin and it is the rationale that we’re pushing these rankings out.”
Earlier developments level towards nighttime grades getting higher, although. Harkey mentioned that in 2019, solely about half of fashions carried out properly within the daytime. In 2021, that determine rose to greater than three-quarters of fashions incomes Superior or Superior.
As such, he predicted nighttime automatic-brake talents will comply with the same path.
“Many [automakers] are assured that they will enhance their methods in a method that may deal with the nighttime drawback,” Harkey mentioned. “We’re assured that the automakers will reply, and inside a pair years, we’ll see these methods improved fairly a bit.”