Most crashes, injuries and fatalities occur at speeds above 25 mph, Carlson said, adding that the proposal “dramatically increases what many AEB systems currently do.”

For speeds above 6.2 mph, the proposal would require a vehicle to provide a forward-collision warning and have an automatic emergency braking system that applies the brakes when a collision with the rear of another vehicle or a pedestrian is imminent.

Additionally, it would require the system to fully avoid other vehicles at speeds up to 50 mph when a driver fails to react. If a driver brakes, but not enough to avoid a collision, the system would have to fully avoid another vehicle at speeds up to 62 mph.

The proposal would require vehicles be able to stop and avoid pedestrians at speeds up to 37 mph.

Automatic emergency braking systems also must be able to perform at night, including detecting pedestrians in the dark and stopping the vehicle accordingly.

It is not clear how many systems available on vehicles today meet the agency’s proposed performance standards.

“Most of them are not operating at the speeds that we’re setting here, although some do,” Carlson said. “Most do not meet the nighttime pedestrian AEB standards. A lot of the systems do not include pedestrian AEB at all, although increasingly we’re seeing some penetration of the fleet.”

In a statement to Automotive News, NHTSA said systems on today’s vehicles offer a “range of performance.”

“Our proposal carefully considers the data from NHTSA research, which demonstrates that vehicles can achieve the performance levels we are proposing,” the agency said.

Hyundai Motor North America said in a statement that it supports NHTSA’s proposal as “an important step to further reduce automotive crashes and injuries.”

The automaker said its 2023 model year lineup comes with standard automatic emergency braking systems, including advanced pedestrian detection, but it did not comment on whether the technology meets all the performance requirements in the proposal.

Ford Motor Co., General Motors, Honda, Mazda and Mercedes-Benz said they were still reviewing NHTSA’s proposal.