The insurance industry’s research centre, Thatcham Research, has said that thousands of lives could be saved if there were Government incentives for drivers buying cars with anti-crash technology.

According to the organisation, initial UK market data shows cars equipped with autonomous emergency braking (AEB) have 18% fewer third-party injury claims.

Thatcham's chief executive Peter Shaw has called for support for his company's Stop the Crash campaign, which plans to ask the Treasury to introduce and fund a £500 incentive for those choosing to buy new cars with AEB fitted.

Mr Shaw said such a scheme would see 100% of the UK new car fleet fitted with AEB by 2025, which could avoid over 17,000 deaths and serious injuries on the UK's roads in a decade from 2015.

The research body said 90% of road crashes are due to human error or distraction, with the total cost of the average injury crash being £90,000. Also, 550,000 whiplash claims annually in the UK are costing £2 billion, adding £90 to the average car insurance premium.

This in contrast with only 23% of new cars on sale today equipped with AEB as an option or standard fit and fewer than 10 cars sold have the technology specified.

Commenting on the initiative, Mr Shaw said: "Vehicle technology has been a major factor in cutting UK road deaths from 7,000-plus in the 1970s to 1,754 in 2012. A responsible driver who pays extra to reduce the potential impact of their car should benefit from a helping hand from the Government.”

AA President Edmund King said: "Every now and then a new safety technology comes along that is worthy of widespread uptake as it will save lives. We have seen this with seatbelts, airbags, antilock brakes, electronic stability control and now we have the chance to embrace AEB. Often such technologies are expensive at first and therefore only taken up by safety pioneers or those who can afford top end cars.

"We need to encourage manufacturers to make AEB available further down their model ranges and we need to encourage car buyers, including fleet buyers, to specify AEB when choosing new cars. As the Government has a good record of giving incentives to encourage the uptake of greener cars, we would like to see such incentives expanded to safer cars."