We all know the Euro NCAP (European New Car Assessment Programme) as the benchmark for evaluating automotive safety in Europe. Its star rating system has successfully entered the public consciousness, even among those with no connection to the car industry itself.
As the emphasis in safety shifts away from mitigating the impact of collisions to avoiding collisions in the first place – an example being Mobileye’s Collision Avoidance Systems (CAS), which are distributed in Ireland by ADAS.ie – how we evaluate safety has to shift also. It is, and NCAP ratings are changing with it, to include driver-assistance features. It’s all part of the NCAP 2025 roadmap, backdrop to which is Vision Zero, a multi-national project that aims to achieve a highway system with no fatalities or serious injuries.
Last month saw the roll-out of the assisted-driving grading framework by Euro NCAP. This centres around a new grading system to evaluate the Highway Assist (or Traffic Jam Assist) features offered on a growing range of vehicles. These systems combine Adaptive Cruise Control and Lane Centering functions to keep a vehicle cruising at a steady speed while maintaining a safe distance from the vehicle in front and remaining safely within the boundaries of its lane.
It was a significant endorsement for our partner Mobileye that vehicles equipped with its technology were to the fore. In all, Euro NCAP chose 10 vehicles, equipped with some of the most advanced highway-assist systems on the market, to evaluate in this round of testing. 8 of the 10 incorporated Mobileye tech – among them two of the three vehicles which received Very Good ratings (the highest of four grades assigned under the new framework) – the Audi Q8 and BMW 3 Series.
Fir the moment at least, Euro NCAP will promote ADAS technologies based on the assistance they offer, but outside of the main star rating scheme.
Mobileye is understandably upbeat about the development. A company statement said: “We enthusiastically share the emphasis that Euro NCAP has placed on the human driver’s centrality in the codification of its new assisted-driving standard. It is, to a large degree, with these same considerations in mind that we are rolling out Mobileye SuperVision™.
Mobileye’s most advanced driver-assistance system yet, SuperVision leverages technology from its autonomous-vehicle development program to deliver an array of hands-free driving capabilities, while still leaving the driver in overall control of the vehicle.
Watch this space!
For more, see Mobileye’s blog here.