Front crash prevention goes by many names

IIHS adopted the umbrella term "front crash prevention" to refer to any system that uses sensors to detect other vehicles or obstacles in order to prevent or mitigate a frontal crash. The term includes systems that issue warnings, systems that automatically brake, and systems that do both.

Although useful as a descriptive phrase, "front crash prevention" may not be familiar to auto dealers. The terms "forward collision warning" and "automatic emergency braking" are somewhat more widely used. Mostly, vehicle manufacturers and dealers use their own names for these features. For example, Buick offers Forward Collision Alert and Automatic Collision Preparation. Audi's front crash prevention is called Audi pre sense front, while Mercedes-Benz has Distronic Plus, among other names.

Adding to the confusion, manufacturers aren't always consistent. For example, they may use one name for a feature in marketing materials and another name on the window sticker. In many cases, optional front crash prevention comes as part of a package of features that has its own name as well.

To assist consumers, IIHS lists the manufacturer's name — or one of the names — for the system, as well as the package name, for each vehicle rated for front crash prevention. This information can be found in the front crash prevention tab on the ratings page for each vehicle.

Below is a list of names of front crash prevention systems rated by the Institute that are available on 2016 models. Systems that include autobrake are in bold.