Euro NCAP's getting bored, begins being nit-picky on new areas for 2023 assessment

Safety does always come first, especially with modern cars continuing to get bigger, quicker and faster. You know the formula for momentum; mass multiplied by velocity. And modern cars have a lot more mass as well as velocity.

With that in mind, safety does become more paramount to prevent deaths, or at the very least, major injuries.

That’s where the New Car Assessment Program (NCAP) comes in. Over the years, the programme has continuously pushed for carmakers to raise the safety features of their products to protect consumers.

However, even with the added weight and speed of modern cars, they’re the safest vehicles ever made. With that in mind, there’s only so much more that can be done to make them safer before it requires actually taking certain measures of control away from the driver, as in permanently semi-autonomous vehicles.

Furthermore, there’s also the fear that by constantly zooming in on particular areas of safety, it forces carmakers to design cars specifically to pass that NCAP test or requirement instead of taking into account real world conditions or statistics.

On the other hand, there are certain quarters that believe that NCAP also functions as an official cartel member for major automotive suppliers. It does so by basing its assessments on the need for more and more sophisticated systems that are sold by these suppliers.

In return, it receives funding from the EU, which has an interest in protecting jobs.

Euro NCAP has always been at the forefront of the global NCAP programmes and for 2023, some of the new areas of assessment that will be rewarded are essentially expansions of existing standards but require more sophisticated sensors or systems to receive the highest ratings.

The new assessments for 2023 include the following:

• Child presence detection - Vehicle assessed for ability to notify driver or emergency services if a child is left alone in locked car.

• Vehicle submergence - Ability to open powered windows long enough after a vehicle is submerged to allow occupants to escape is rewarded.

• Autonomous emergency braking for motorcycles (AEB) - Increased ability to detect and stop for motorcycles (only possible with more sophisticated systems and sensors).

• Expanded ability to prevent head-on collision (AEB) - Vehicles will require a wider and further field of view (requires sensors with longer distance and wider field of view)

• Pedestrian and cyclist detection (AEB) - Collision avoidance braking expanded to detect child behind car and for BLIS to detect cyclist passing by before opening door.

Most of these systems already exist in some capacity in modern cars but the new assessments will need them to perform at a higher level and for that, newer, and possibly pricier, sensors will be required.

Perhaps a change is required in the way new cars are assessed for their safety but until then, consumers will still have to rely on the NCAP ratings.