Toyota says most of its models will have forward-collision warning and automatic emergency braking as standard features by 2018, well ahead of the target set for automakers last week in an announcement by the Department of Transportation.
The agreement among government, industry, and safety advocates placed a timetable for voluntarily making automatic emergency braking and forward-collision warning standard in all cars by 2022. Toyota and Lexus, its luxury car division, will beat the Transportation Department's goal by a full four years on the clear majority of its models.
Starting at the end of 2017, 25 of 30 Toyota and Lexus models will have Lexus Safety System+ and Toyota Safety Sense packages, including automatic emergency braking and forward-collision warning.
Consumer Reports believes automatic emergency braking and forward-collision warning should be a safety standard for all vehicles. We adjusted our Ratings system in February to give bonus points to automakers for including these systems as standard on all trim levels of every model.
These technologies are available as options on many cars, and they're often pricey.
As part of our commitment to safety, we pledged last week to work with DOT and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration officials, along with executives from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, to hold automakers accountable to the voluntary agreement.
Cars already equipped with automatic emergency braking and forward-collision warning technologies have reduced rear-end crashes by about 40 percent, and cut bodily injury claims by up to 30 percent, according to IIHS. Those translate into thousands of injuries prevented and lives saved annually.
The Lexus GX, and the Toyota 4Runner and Mirai will not receive the standard safety packages. The GX and 4Runner come from the same 7-year-old platform, and they are likely due for a redesign shortly after 2017. (The Mirai is a hydrogen-fuel-cell vehicle designed to show alternate fuel technologies.)
Toyota-badged models developed with other manufacturers have a different outcome. The Scion iA, co-developed with Mazda, will be rebadged as the Toyota iA later this year and keep its existing low-speed automatic emergency braking feature. The Subaru-partnered Scion FR-S will become the Toyota 86; it's unknown if or when automatic emergency braking and forward-collision warning will come to this low-volume sports coupe. Subaru has indicated that its model lineup will have automatic emergency braking as standard by 2022 but declined to comment on the Toyota model.