Euro NCAP It is the yardstick for the safety of all new cars that are launched on the European market. The body and its tests are regularly updated to better adapt to the most current circumstances, and it has just presented the Vision 2030a program that advances the tests that will be established so that in the year 2030 the cars are safer.
The first major change is the fact that the tests will be restructured to establish four new phases of analysis, different those used today.
Currently the results of each car are scored in adult occupant protection, child occupant protection, vulnerable road user protection and driver assistant protection.
The four phases of an accident
From 2026, will adjust to the four distinct phases that can occur in a possible road accident: safe driving, accident prevention, crash protection and post-collision safety.
In detail, this is what will be evaluated within each area:
- safe driving: driver monitoring, speed assistants and driving assistants and autonomous driving systems.
- Accident prevention: lane keeping systems, brake assists, steering assists and accelerator related issues.
- crash protection: protection of adults and children in frontal and lateral collisions, protection in rear-end collisions and safety of pedestrians and cyclists.
- Post-Collision Safety: rescue and extraction of users.
The new Euro NCAP tests
Following the evolution of safety technology, the agency will place greater emphasis on all elements related to driving assistants, autonomous driving and communication technologies of connected vehicles.
The list of new tests to be included is as follows:
- Testing and evaluation of systems driver assistance.
- Evaluation of the technology that monitors driver fatigue and the distraction cognitive.
- Requirements to further improve the real-world effectiveness of the technology of speed assist.
- Active safety tests that more closely simulate real road environments and examine the design of man-machine interaction (HMI).
- Testing and evaluation of security features enabled by V2V communication (vehicle to vehicle), V2I (vehicle to infrastructure) and V2X (vehicle to everything around it).
- Passive safety tests will pay more attention to the gender equality and to the aging of drivers and occupants.
- Evaluation of the risk of fire and thermal runaway in electric vehicles and improvement of information for first and second responders.
- promotion of security best practices of vehicles and data access.
Review of motorcycles and trucks
In a complementary way, Euro NCAP will create new security programs for heavy vehicles and motorcycles.
“The achievements of Euro NCAP in its 25-year history are testimony to the lasting success and the relevance of the program. Despite the important advances in the safety of passenger cars, our work is not finished”, he assures Niels Ebbé Jacobsen, president of the organization.
In the words of Jacobsen, “Euro NCAP strongly believes that it has the potential to further improve vehicle safety into the next decade in support of a vision zero that strives to eliminate deaths and serious injuries in traffic accidents.