New bill honours memory of American teen cyclist Magnus White with automatic emergency braking requirement

When 17-year-old elite cyclist Magnus White was killed by a distracted driver in Boulder, Colorado, in mid-2023, his parents vowed not to let his legacy be forgotten.

Magnus’ parents, Michael and Jill White, founded The White Line Foundation in the second half of 2023 with one goal in mind: end preventable road deaths by 2035.

Today, The White Line Foundation is getting close to seeing a bill it championed become codified into U.S. law: HR 7353, also known as the Magnus White and Safe Streets for Everyone Act.

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If voted into law, HR 7353 would amend automatic emergency braking (AEB) regulations to include the detection of “vulnerable road users” such as bicyclists, motorcyclists, and wheelchair users in all new passenger vehicles under ten thousand pounds by September 1, 2029.

AEB has been mandatory for all new cars sold in the UK and EU since July 2024.

AEB systems use sensors, cameras, and radar to detect objects, including pedestrians, in a vehicle’s path. If a driver does not brake in time to avoid the object, the AEB brakes for the driver.

HR 7353 is The White Line Foundation’s second attempt at getting AEB amendments written into law. The Magnus White Cyclist Safety Act of 2024 proposed nearly the same regulations as HR 7353, but stalled in the House.

“Magnus…was struck and killed by a driver who never saw him,” a statement from The White Line Foundation reads. “If that vehicle had automatic emergency braking that could detect cyclists, Magnus would still be alive.”

The technology to detect cyclists as part of an AEB already exists, but is not always included in U.S. car models.

For example, Ford equips its European-market vehicles with cyclist detection because the EU has regulations that require it. In the U.S., Ford does not certify nor currently offer cyclist detection on U.S. models.

There are currently 14 car brands that offer AEB with vulnerable road user detection in the U.S.: BMW, Genesis, Hyundai, Jeep, Kia, Land Rover, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Polestar, Subaru, Tesla, Toyota/Lexus, and Volvo. However, not all U.S.-offered models of these car brands have the AEB with vulnerable road user detection feature.

One success story of AEB with vulnerable road user detections is Waymo, the autonomous car company present in large U.S. cities such as San Francisco, CA and Austin, TX. Waymo’s autonomous driving and braking technology has resulted in 83% fewer cyclist injury crashes than human drivers.

In February, HR 7353 passed the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade as part of the Surface Transportation Reauthorization package currently in Congress.

Now, HR 7353 will head to a markup session on April 29, where it may undergo amendments and changes to its verbiage. Most critically, the markup session is where HR 7353 will undergo a vote as part of the Surface Transportation Reauthorization package to see if the 550 billion-dollar package will advance to the House.

If it advances, the House will vote on the package in late May.

“The expectation is that the package will advance to the full House floor,” says The White Line Foundation Executive Director Jacqueline Claudia. “While nothing is final until it’s signed into law, [when a bill is in the House]…momentum matters the most [because that is] where bills either move forward or stall.”

If you’d like to support HR 7353, you can use The White Line Foundation’s letter writing tool to communicate with your representatives.