Good question and here is a good answer. In a way, you have answered your own question. "Automatic braking" is currently not "automatic stopping." EAB (Emergency Auto Braking) is NOT "full self driving". EAB will apply the brakes to slow the vehicle if it detects a MOVING obstacle ahead, but it will not prevent a collision. Driver manual input (physically apply the brake) is required to prevent a collision. The technology has not been perfected yet to brake when a stationary obstacle is detected. The reason is EAB cannot detect the difference between a stationary vehicle in the middle of the road from an overhead sign, road overcrossing, a piece of retread tire, etc. directly ahead. Therefore, current EAB algorithms are written to exclude stationary objects until better conditional responses can be coded. In the case above, the driver admitted that she was texting on her cell phone and was not watching the road ahead. She slammed into the parked fire truck, in the middle of the road, at 60 mph and she never touched the brakes. The car was totaled but she escaped with a broken ankle. My Prius with ACC will slow my car if someone cuts in front of me while moving. It will not prevent a collision. Many people think that EAB is equal to "full self driving", it is not. The technology for FSD is not there yet but hopefully it will be soon.
Actually the Gen 3 Prius' PCS would not have braked either and would've slammed into the parked fire engine. Collision mitigation systems won't recognise stationary objects as they mark it as false positive (so that the car doesn't brake when going around a corner that has those steel bars on the side of the road for example)
Just as an update, the official results are now out. The RWD Model 3 received 5 stars overall. 5 stars in every category and 5 stars in every sub category. 2018 TESLA MODEL 3 4 DR RWD | NHTSA
