The Daihatsu Rocky and its identical twin brother the Toyota Raize have been given a maximum 5-star rating for crash safety protection by the Japan New Car Assessment Program (JNCAP).

It scored a reasonably good 85.7 points out of the maximum 100 points, which nudges it just slightly above the minimum 82 points required for a 5-star rating.

Unlike Euro NCAP, JNCAP gives separate ratings for passive safety (crash protection) and active safety (collision avoidance). While the Rocky/Raize did well in the former, it was only average in the latter.

For collision avoidance, the Rocky/Raize was given an average ASV++ rating, missing out on the highest ASV+++ rating.

All the Rocky/Raize’s ADAS (advance driver assistance systems) performed well in JNCAP’s tests except for its AEB’s (autonomous emergency braking) pedestrian detection feature.

In JNCAP’s Collision Prevention – Nearside (CPN) scenario – a simple scenario of a person walking into the speeding car’s path - the Rocky/Raize managed to avoid collisions at speeds of up to 35 km/h. For tests done at speeds between 40 to 50 km/h however, the test car collided with the test dummy, but the system still managed to reduce the speed to 19.2 km/h and 38.4 km/h respectively.

In the more challenging Collision Prevention – Nearside with Obstruction (CPNO) scenario – where a pedestrian suddenly appears into view, the Rocky/Raize failed to avoid in all collisions at all the tested speeds – from 25 km/h to 45 km/h.

Speed reduction was not significant enough too, which severely reduced its points collected. At 35 km/h, the speed upon impact with the test dummy was 33.7 km/h. At 40 km/h and 45 km/h, it was 39.0 km/h and 44.9 km/h respectively – almost no reduction in speed.

As such, the Rocky/Raize scored just 12.9 out of the maximum 80 points in AEB pedestrian collision avoidance test. 

The AEB used by the Daihatsu Rocky and Toyota Raize is similar to the ASA 2.0 feature used by the Perodua Axia, Bezza, and Aruz (Perodua Myvi uses an earlier ASA 1.0). It might not be the most sophisticated system, but it’s good enough for budget cars. Remember that Proton doesn’t offer any equivalent feature in the Proton Saga, Iriz, and Persona.

The Japanese market Toyota Raize tested by JNCAP is manufactured under contract by Daihatsu, and is a rebadged version of the Daihatsu Rocky, which is expected to be introduced in Malaysia by Perodua later this year.

Perodua has already confirmed that it is working to introduce a new SUV model for Malaysia, but stopped short of confirming that it will be based on the Japanese market Daihatsu Rocky. The upcoming Perodua SUV model is commonly referred to by its project codename D55L.