AAA testing reveals limits

Boise – Feb. 15, 2024 – About 30% of all new vehicles have an available safety feature known as reverse automatic emergency braking (AEB), which can detect a potential collision while backing up and apply the brakes automatically. But according to new AAA research, drivers shouldn’t rely on the technology to prevent a crash.

AAA recently tested four 2023 model-year vehicles equipped with reverse AEB and rear cross traffic mitigation (RCTM) on a closed course. Researchers examined how the systems performed when backing out of a parking space (both perpendicular and angled) with a passing dummy vehicle, and while encountering a stationary dummy “child” behind the car.

When a subject vehicle crossed behind the test vehicle while it was backing up, reverse AEB automatically applied the brakes in 65% of test runs and prevented a collision in 2.5% of them. With a stationary child dummy behind the vehicles, the brakes were automatically applied in 75% of test runs and prevented a collision half of the time.

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