More than 14,000 pedestrians, bicyclists, and motorcyclists were killed in motor vehicle crashes across the United States in 2024. Federal rules already require new cars to include automatic emergency braking that can detect pedestrians — but cyclists and motorcyclists aren’t covered.
Now a growing coalition of 85 organizations is pushing to change that. The bill they’re backing carries a name with weight: the Magnus White and Safe Streets for Everyone Act, named for a 17-year-old national cycling champion killed by a driver in 2023.
The gap in the current AEB standard
NHTSA’s 2024 final rule was a genuine milestone. For the first time, it required automatic emergency braking with pedestrian detection on all new passenger vehicles — a mandate set to take full effect by 2029. The rule acknowledged that AEB technology reduces rear-end and pedestrian crashes, and that requiring it across the fleet would save lives at scale.
But the rule has a defined boundary. Pedestrians are covered. Bicyclists, motorcyclists, and other vulnerable road users are not. That gap has real consequences: NHTSA’s own 2024 crash data show 1,103 bicyclists and 6,228 motorcyclists were killed in motor vehicle crashes that year — groups the existing mandate leaves entirely unprotected.
There’s an added layer of uncertainty. Several aspects of the 2024 rule are currently under review by NHTSA, which means even the existing pedestrian-detection standard isn’t fully settled.
The Magnus White and Safe Streets for Everyone Act
H.R. 7353 was introduced by Representatives Yvette Clarke (D-NY) and Joe Neguse (D-CO). The bill would require AEB systems in new passenger vehicles to detect and respond to bicyclists, motorcyclists, and other vulnerable road users — extending the logic of the 2024 pedestrian rule to the groups it left out.
The bill’s name comes from Magnus White, a 17-year-old U.S. National Cycling Champion killed in 2023 when a driver struck him on a designated bike path while he was training for the Mountain Bike World Championships.
His parents, Jill and Michael White, have spoken directly about what the technology could have meant. In their words: lane assist could have kept the driver in her lane, and automatic emergency braking as proposed in the legislation would have detected Magnus and stopped the car before impact. “Vehicle technology would have seen what the driver could not,” they said. “It would have saved our son’s life.”
Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, which helped organize support for the bill, is urging Congress to include the measure in the upcoming surface transportation reauthorization — a major legislative vehicle that could accelerate its path to becoming law.
A broad coalition and strong public support
The endorsement list is notable for its breadth. Eighty-five organizations signed a joint letter of support, drawing from safety advocates, bicycle and motorcycle groups, consumer organizations, and property and casualty insurance associations.
The League of American Bicyclists has been pushing for bicyclist-specific AEB for more than a decade. Executive director Bill Nesper noted plainly that the technology already exists and that the bill represents long-overdue momentum. The American Motorcyclist Association also backed the legislation — its Washington representative, Zach Farmer, framing the issue in straightforward terms: AEB systems should detect all road users, not a selected subset.
Public polling reinforces the coalition’s position. Data released by Advocates showed 73% of respondents support requiring AEB to cover cyclists and motorcyclists in addition to pedestrians. Among those with a stated opinion, that figure climbed to 91%.
Technology that exists but isn’t yet required
One point advocates return to repeatedly: this isn’t a question of whether the technology can do the job. AEB systems capable of detecting bicyclists and motorcyclists are already available in some vehicles on the market today. The barrier is regulatory, not engineering.
That framing shapes how supporters position the bill — not as a demand for unproven innovation, but as a logical extension of a standard already in place. The 2024 pedestrian-detection rule established the principle that AEB should be mandatory. The Magnus White Act, in their view, simply applies that principle consistently to everyone sharing the road.
Attaching the bill to the surface transportation reauthorization matters strategically. That broad spending and policy package is one of the few mechanisms that reliably moves large-scale transportation policy through Congress, giving the bill a clearer path than it would have as standalone legislation. Reauthorization timelines remain uncertain, but the process is the primary vehicle advocates are targeting.
What to watch
The coming months will clarify several things. NHTSA’s ongoing review of the 2024 AEB rule will determine whether the existing pedestrian-detection mandate holds in its current form, gets modified, or faces further delay — an outcome that would shape the regulatory environment the Magnus White Act would enter.
Whether congressional leaders choose to include the bill’s provisions in the reauthorization package will be a key signal of how seriously the expanded AEB requirement is being taken. With 85 organizations aligned, polling showing broad public support, and bipartisan sponsorship in the House, the groundwork for expansion is more developed than it’s been at any prior point. Whether that translates into a mandate — and on what timeline — is the question the next legislative cycle will begin to answer.