ANCAP will soon dock points for 'annoying' car safety systems
01/20/2025 05:00 PM
ANCAP is tightening its testing criteria again in 2026, with a key focus on useability of advanced safety systems such as driver monitoring.
The Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP) will examine not only whether vehicles feature certain safety systems, but also their effectiveness and annoyance to drivers from next year.
This is in line with ANCAP tightening standards every three years, with the incoming changes also looking to address brands that update their safety systems after being assessed.
Recently, Mitsubishi updated its driver monitoring system for its Triton ute that was deemed overly intrusive by customers, while Ford also changed the sensitivity of its Ranger and Everest models after buyer feedback.
ANCAP Chief Executive Officer Carla Hoorweg said these updates need to be flagged with the peak car safety body, so they do not affect existing ratings, but also such systems will be under higher scrutiny next year.
"The protocols do require the manufacturers to tell is when they're changing anything that has been part of the assessment," Hoorweg told Drive.
"We will have more to say on that this year.
"Lane support systems is an area where us and Europe are doing more work to go 'ok, it performs in our protocols, it does the job that we're looking for in the protocols, but is it really annoying or does it do something that's not great' from a human-machine interface perspective.
"That is something we can incorporate into the protocols and will incorporate into the protocols in 2026."
Euro NCAP has flagged several testing criteria revisions in its 2026 protocols, all of which are still under final review and yet to be ratified.
Among the areas include occupant monitoring, driver engagement, and low-speed collision avoidance, with some proposed changes including detection of alcohol/drug use in drivers and earlier autonomous emergency braking (AEB) activation.
"There will be a greater focus on not just about 'can it do the job?', but if it's got detrimental factors, then they're things that we're going to start considering," Hoorweg said.
"Do you get some points taken off for it being annoying, for example, or distracting.
"We've got a lot of scope to make changes like that and that's an area of high interested for the next set of protocols."
In October last year, Euro NCAP decided to reassess five popular models on the latest 'assisted driving' standards.
Though models like the BMW i5 and Mercedes-Benz C-Class were both deemed 'very good', the BYD Atto 3 was slapped with a 'not recommended' rating for its poor adaptive cruise control performance.
According to ANCAP, all vehicles that are available to purchase – not necessarily delivered – can be subject to testing, with car brands opting to either supply the five-to-six vehicles required or the body themselves purchasing the required number once handovers begin.
This means a number of 2026 vehicles could be assessed late this year before the new, stricter protocols take effect.
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