The European Parliament is to pass legislation which will require all new cars to have automatic emergency braking systems as standard.

The legislation was discussed by the EU last year and is among a number of changes to the laws on new vehicles which will be made compulsory. If passed at parliament next month the new rules should be expected to be in place by 2022.

“It's encouraging that a lot of the safety technologies proposed are already fitted as standard on many new cars,” said Matthew Avery, director of Thatcham Research, a body which looks at the safety standards of motoring across Europe. “In fact, it's not now impossible to get a five-star Euro NCAP safety rating without AEB fitted as standard.

"We would hope the proposed timeline of within three years could be more ambitious."

The introduction of mandatory AEB systems are amongst a number of safety changes to be voted on by European Parliament next month including:

- Advanced automatic emergency braking systems

- Lane departure warning systems

- Intelligent speed assistance

- Alcohol interlock installation facilitation

- Driver drowsiness and attention warning

- Advanced driver distraction warning

- Emergency stop signal

- Reversing detection

- Accident data recorder

Though many motors are already including these safety features as standard, there are fears that adding too much autonomy to a vehicle will become an issue for drivers, with Avery saying: "Drivers like the vehicle to know what the set limit is but also like to have ultimate control of their vehicle's speed".

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