Nissan has announced that it will make Automatic Emergency Braking standard equipment on seven of its most popular models for 2018. Formerly known as Forward Emergency Braking, the automaker says the decision will virtually double the number of Nissans sold here with AEB to roughly 1 million. The vehicles involved include the 2018 Rogue and Rogue Sport, Altima, Murano, LEAF, Pathfinder, Maxima and Sentra – except those Sentras fitted with a manual transmission and NISMO models – as well as several versions of its full-size Armada SUV.
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“The big news here is that we’re making AEB standard across all grades of our best-selling models,” said Michael Bunce, vice president, Product Planning, Nissan North America, Inc. "This increased AEB availability is part of our ongoing commitment to help reduce fatalities while realizing our comprehensive vision of Nissan Intelligent Mobility."
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Part of Nissan’s Intelligent Safety Shield Technologies suite and designed to help avoid or at least reduce the severity of frontal collisions, the AEB system uses radar technology to monitor the distance to a vehicle ahead and provide the driver both audible and visual warnings to evoke a suitable response. Should the driver fail to brake in a timely or sufficient manner, the system can respond appropriately and help reduce the vehicle’s speed if a potential frontal collision is detected. According to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration stats from 2013, a third of all police-reported crashes involve a rear-end collision. A 2015 NHTSA report notes that AEB-type systems can help reduce injury insurance claims by as much as 35 percent and a similar study on AEB by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety found that it reduced collisions by 39 percent.
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