How crash testing will adapt to the 'safest' cars ever

Also on the agenda are assessment of assisted and automated driver support systems; a requirement for more efficient speed assistance technology; more accommodation of connected tech such as vehicle-to-vehicle communication (V2V) and vehicle-to-everything communication (V2X); and promoting best practice in vehicle security and data access.

The full roadmap is available to read here, and while there can be no denying that it will result in safer cars, it’s apparent that the path will not be straightforward. Indeed, Vision 2030 itself acknowledges: “During negotiations on these protocol updates, sometime[s] requirements were softened to ease the introduction of a new technology. Nevertheless, the challenges of the 2023 rating requirements will still be insurmountable for some manufacturers.”

Of course, one manufacturer that has been increasingly vocal about the cost and complexity of car tech is Dacia. It has regularly reinforced its intent to keep prices down by avoiding what it considers non-essential features, and has stated it is “not chasing Euro NCAP stars”. 

Van Ratingen acknowledges Dacia’s position. “Of course, I understand their point of view,” he says. But he adds that he believes that the budget brand “and others” are “really taking advantage of the huge gap between what type approval requires versus what Euro NCAP would recommend” at the expense of customers – “people who are not really involved and just look at the price.”

However, one potentially positive outcome of this debate is that it has presented an opportunity to raise awareness and engagement among these customers. He continues: “On social media, we sometimes get very strong comments back from consumers asking why we are giving a car that doesn’t have driver assistance systems such a low score? The understanding of a lot of consumers is that crashes are unavoidable. 

“But we are way beyond that point. Crash avoidance technologies should be really looked at as life savers rather than just nice-to-have gadgets. But you can’t expect people to understand it first time round, so we have to repeat it and repeat it.”

Tangible evidence of the influence of Euro NCAP came earlier this year, with the introduction of General Safety Regulations (GSR2) that made a number of technologies – such as AEB, lane support and speed assistance – standard on all new cars sold in the European Union and the United Kingdom. As van Ratingen points out: “All these technologies mandated in 2022… four years ago we already managed to have these in basically all passenger cars.”

In the past, the slow pace of regulation has been a frustration, but van Ratingen believes that moving forward it may no longer be an issue due to one very specific event: Dieselgate. “It shook the system in Geneva significantly, not just in emissions but also in safety,” he explains.

“Since then, there has been a lot more activity going on, on automated driving and other technologies such as distraction and attention evaluation, where I think it’s perhaps too early to regulate. I’m a big supporter of the market, and the market should lead. And that’s why I’m at Euro NCAP, because I believe that we can help the markets realise their ambitions. 

“But I’m not a big fan of regulation too early because it will stifle innovation. It will push certain manufacturers to offer low basic systems that could comply with regulation and then stop innovating. This is not good. Sometimes it’s better to keep the things open to see what individual car manufacturers are offering and use that as a benchmark for others.”