WASHINGTON — Automated emergency braking techniques can scale back rear-end crashes in pickups, however few are geared up with the protection function as customary expertise, in keeping with a examine launched Tuesday by the Insurance coverage Institute for Freeway Security.

The examine used knowledge gathered from police-reported crashes in 25 states from 2017 to 2020 and seemed on the price at which pickups rear-ended different autos per yr.

The rear-end crash price was 43 p.c decrease for pickups geared up with the expertise than for these with out it, the findings confirmed. Rear-end damage crash charges had been 42 p.c decrease.

“These numbers affirm that [automatic emergency braking] is lowering crashes for pickups, simply as it’s vehicles, SUVs and enormous vans,” stated examine writer Jessica Cicchino, vp on the insurer-funded institute. “The sooner automakers can make it possible for each pickup they promote has this vital security function, the higher.”

Automated emergency braking aimed toward stopping crashes with different autos was customary on simply 5 p.c of registered pickups within the U.S. in 2021, the institute stated, in contrast with 10 p.c of vehicles and 18 p.c of SUVs. The protection function was optionally available on 10 p.c of pickups, 15 p.c of vehicles and 22 p.c of SUVs.

“Pickups account for 1 out of 5 passenger autos on U.S. roads, and their giant measurement could make them harmful to folks in smaller autos or on foot,” Cicchino stated. “Nonetheless, producers have been sluggish to equip them with [automatic emergency braking] and different crash-avoidance techniques.”

By the top of the yr, NHTSA plans to hunt touch upon a proposal to require computerized emergency braking, together with pedestrian detection, on all new mild autos and set minimal efficiency requirements, as mandated within the infrastructure regulation handed by Congress final yr.

In the meantime, at the least 12 automakers have already got met a 2016 voluntary dedication brokered by the institute and NHTSA to equip at the least 95 p.c of their light-duty vehicles and vans with computerized emergency braking. The dedication requires automakers to satisfy the benchmark for fashions manufactured from Sept. 1, 2022, to Aug. 31, 2023.

Nonetheless, pickups with a gross automobile weight ranking of greater than 8,500 kilos are exempt from the deal till 2025, and Class 3 vans — these with a gross automobile weight ranking of 10,001 to 14,000 kilos, corresponding to some heavy-duty pickups — aren’t coated in any respect, the institute stated.

The institute is urging automakers to equip all new fashions with computerized braking techniques that may work at increased speeds and detect pedestrians through the day and at evening.