The Australian and European New Car Assessment Programs are investigating the expansion of their vehicle assessment portfolio to include heavy goods vehicles as well as motorcycles and motor scooters. The announcement comes as both Euro NCAP and its Australian counterpart ANCAP have released their 2030 future view, establishing a vehicle safety focus across the Australian, New Zealand and European new vehicle markets.
Both Euro NCAP and ANCAP say they will be exploring the expansion into the “assessment of additional vehicle types, with a view to assessing the active safety capability of motorcycles and motor scooters and heavy goods vehicles”.
“This is a milestone day for vehicle safety, the release of the 2030 future view establishes the key testing and assessment focus areas for the industry, both for our existing automotive industry stakeholders, and for a new cohort of industry stakeholders that have not previously engaged in the NCAP process.,” said ANCAP chief executive Carla Hoorweg.
“The move to explore assessment of medium and heavy trucks is a notable shift and seeks to address the overrepresentation of these vehicles in road fatalities and serious injuries,” Hoorweg said.
“For our existing star rating program, the evolution in our assessment pillars acknowledges the role assisted and automated technologies will play in reducing road-related fatalities and serious injuries among light passenger vehicles,” she added.
The release from ANCAP says that key aspects being incorporated into existing ANCAP and Euro NCAP star ratings through to 2030 include passive safety tests saying it will give greater focus to gender equality and the ageing population of drivers/occupants.
“Active safety tests which more closely simulate real road environments and examine human-machine interface (HMI) design will also be incorporated into the star ratings through to 2030 as will testing and assessment of assisted and automated driving systems as well as V2V, V2I and V2X communication” the organisation said.
