Focus on unnecessary distraction (and on electrically extendable handles!)
Euro NCAP – the organization that crashes new models to pieces in the context of safety testing – will pay extra attention in its assessment of the safety of new cars to the presence or absence of physical buttons.
Euro NCAP – the European branch of safety institute Global NCAP – reviews the protocols on which it bases tests and associated assessments every three years. As of next year, a lot will change in the way Euro NCAP works. So much so that Euro NCAP speaks of the largest revision of the assessment system since 2009.
According to Euro NCAP, the new assessments must better reflect current practice on the road. Remarkably: Euro NCAP also says it will examine the presence and placement of physical buttons for important functions because consumers perceive them as safer and less distracting. It also looks at the placement of other controls in the interior and the way in which they can be operated intuitively and without taking attention away from the road. In line with this is the way in which active safety systems may actually cause extra distraction.
Euro NCAP’s new assessment system is divided into four topics: Safe Driving, Crash Avoidance, Crash Protection and Post-Crash Safety . Each component receives its own score up to 100 points, within which threshold values determine how many stars a car receives. The point of attention ‘buttons and their placement’ falls under the theme Safe Driving and is part of the assessment of the HMI (Human-Machine Interface). In this way, Euro NCAP responds to criticism that settings hidden in infotainment screens are unnecessarily complicated and can cause distraction.
Simulating more scenarios
Regarding accident prevention ( Crash Avoidance) , Euro NCAP will expand the number of potentially dangerous scenarios it simulates. For example, it wants to simulate urban environments full of cyclists and pedestrians and see how safety systems react to them. Not only the operation of the system, but also the smooth way in which they intervene is examined and assessed. Euro NCAP now also awards points to cars that recognize whether the driver has accidentally stepped on the wrong pedal.
Crashing, and then?
In the frontal and side crash tests, Euro NCAP will take into account a greater variety of occupant body types, although it also uses extensive digital simulations for this. Furthermore, the protection of pedestrians and cyclists is weighted more heavily.
Euro NCAP is now also examining what happens after an accident. For example, electrically extendable door handles must continue to work after a crash. The battery of electric cars must also be able to be completely isolated. In addition, the automatic emergency call system must also transmit the number of occupants to the emergency services, even if one of the occupants was not wearing a seat belt at the time of the collision or collision.
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