Is Automated Braking a standard feature?

If you’ve been keeping up with our weekly posts detailing the different safety technologies popping up in tons of vehicles across the market, then you probably already have a pretty good idea of just how important safety features have become over the past couple of years. While features like Toyota’s Pre-Collision System were at first only available add-ons in the most luxurious vehicles on the market, these important safety features have begun trickling down to become available in a multitude of vehicles around the industry. Although it has become available in more cars, many people are still wondering if automated braking is a standard feature.

[ READ MORE: About Toyota’s Pre-Collision System and how it works ]

“At Toyota, we are committed to creating better ways to move for everyone. High-level driver assist technologies can do more than help protect people in the event of a crash; they can help prevent some crashes from ever happening in the first place. We are proud to help lead this industry in standardizing these systems and bring automated braking to our customers sooner rather than later.”

– Jim Lentz, Chief Executive Officer, Toyota Motor North America

Automatic Emergency Braking is one of the most important safety features available in vehicles today, as it can greatly improve the chance of avoiding a collision entirely. Toyota recently announced that by the end of 2017, the Automatic Emergency Braking system will come standard on almost every new vehicle in the lineup. This is thanks to the new Toyota Safety Sense package, which is already available on certain 2016 models.

What is Toyota Safety Sense?

Toyota Safety Sense is the successor to the STAR Safety System. While the technologies that made up the STAR system are not going away, they aren’t quite as “big news” as some of the newer, driver-assistive safety features available in new vehicles – like automated breaking, for instance. Toyota Safety Sense is the package that now combines all of these new technologies into one, and has already been confirmed in vehicles like the 2017 Toyota Prius Prime.