Seven out of eight small SUVs performed well in the rear crash prevention tests conducted recently by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), which addresses low-speed backing crashes that account for a large portion of insurance claims.

The Ford Escape, Honda CR-V, Mitsubishi Outlander and Subaru Forester earned the highest rating of superior, while the Mazda CX-5, Toyota RAV4 and Volkswagen Taos were rated advanced. The Hyundai Tucson earned a basic rating.

“Since 2018, new vehicles have been required to come with a rear camera that makes it easier to see where you’re going when you’re backing up,” IIHS President David Harkey said. “Rear automatic emergency braking (AEB) systems aren’t required, making the feature far less common. That’s too bad because our research consistently shows that technology that intervenes on behalf of the driver is more effective in preventing crashes than other types of solutions.”

The complete IIHS evaluation comprises 24 test runs conducted at 4 mph, with some scenarios weighted more heavily than others. Systems are assigned points based on the number of runs that either avoid targets or reduce speeds to less than 1 mph before hitting them.

Although the low-speed crashes that rear AEB addresses don’t typically cause serious injuries, they can result in thousands of dollars in damage. Nearly 30% of collision claims in calendar year 2022 were for rear points-of-impact costing more than $4,000, according to figures from the Highway Loss Data Institute (HLDI). In contrast, rear AEB costs as little as $600 as an optional feature on some vehicles.

An IIHS study found that the combination of rear cameras, parking sensors, and rear AEB reduced the incidence of police-reported backing crashes by a whopping 78%, while rear cross-traffic alert alone reduced such collisions by 22%.

“Rear AEB probably offers the biggest bang for the buck of any of the crash avoidance systems we monitor,” said HLDI Senior Vice President Matt Moore. “The cost of parking lot fender benders really adds up.”

“The rear AEB evaluation is designed to test how well these systems prevent the most common backing crashes,” said David Aylor, vice president of active safety at IIHS. “These are challenging scenarios in which a pole or another vehicle is behind you and off to the side. Meanwhile, you are backing up and sometimes turning at the same time.”

While rear AEB is becoming more common, it’s still not as commonplace as front AEB, which automakers agreed to make standard on nearly all new models as part of a voluntary commitment brokered by IIHS and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Yet rear AEB was standard on only 23% of model year 2023 passenger vehicles and only available as an option on another 32%. At the current growth rate, an HLDI analysis shows most vehicles in the U.S. fleet won’t have it until nearly 2050.