Latest Trends in NCAPs Worldwide

David Ward Secretary GeneralGlobal New Car Assessment Programme

NETS ‘Strength in Numbers’ Annual MeetingCharlottesville, Virginia 12 October 2017

The first International Traffic Convention was adopted in Paris 1909 and required that cars be:

“So designed as to prevent, as far as possible, all danger of fire or explosion, as not to frighten by its noise animals, whether ridden or driven, and as not to give rise to any other cause of danger to traffic or seriously to inconvenience by the emission of smoke or vapour any persons using the road”

and be equipped with:

“a strong steering apparatus, which will allow the car to be turned readily and with certainty” and have “two brakes, each independent of the other and adequate for its purpose”.

Origins…the First Car Safety ‘Type Approval’ Requirements

In high income countries the combination of safety standards and consumer information have made passenger cars safer than ever before. This is the positive result of “regulatory push” and “demand pull”.

The challenge now is to extend this progress to the rapidly motorising low and middle income countries which now account 50% of car sales and production…and over 90% of road fatalities.

Today millions of new cars sold in low and middle income countries fail to meet minimum UN crash test standards, have no air bags, and no electronic stability control (ESC).

Vehicle Safety’s Winning Formula: Regulatory Push & Demand Pull

• Reveals “worrying data” showing that only 40 out of a total of 193 UN Member States fully apply the seven most important UN safety regulations and these are overwhelmingly high-income countries.

• Says “there is an urgent need for these minimum vehicle standards to be implemented by every country”.

• Warns that “regulations helping to protect occupants withstand front and side impact crashes are poorly implemented globally” and also calls for mandatory fitment of electronic stability control.

WHO Global Road Safety Status Report 2015 - Vehicle Safety

Global NCAP - Building a Market For Safer Cars…Worldwide

The first NCAP was launched in 1978by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. There are now nine NCAPs (or similar) active aroundthe world.

NCAPs promote a ‘market for safety’ by raising awareness of the car buyingpublic, and rewarding manufacturers that build the safest cars.

NCAPs award stars to car models using crash tests that score occupant protection. Theseare recorded by measuring the loadings on instrumented dummies.

NCAPs are usually more stringent than legislativetests.

Since the launch of Euro NCAP in 1997 and adoption of European Union (EU) crash test standards 78,000 lives have been saved. The occupant fatality rate across the EU has reduced by about 50%.

Euro NCAP has released a 2025 Road Map whichaddresses the safety of vulnerable road users including:

Primary SafetyDriver Monitoring (2020), Automatic Emergency Steering (2020, 2022), Autonomous Emergency Braking (2020, 2022), Vehicle to Vehicle Data Exchange and Vehicle to Infrastructure (2024)

Secondary SafetyWhiplash/Rear-end Crash Protection (2020), Pedestrian and Cyclist Safety (2022)

Tertiary SafetyRescue, Extrication and Safety (2020), Child Presence Detection (2022)

20 Years of Progress

Global NCAP’s 2020 Vision…

In 2016 from a total of 72 million new cars as many as 20% fail to meet UN minimum safety standards, lacking air bags, anti-lock brakes, or electronic stability control.

By 2020 at the latest Global NCAP wants all new cars to meet UN crash test standards with air bags, ABS and ESC fitted as standard.

This needs government action to apply UN vehicle safety standards more widely and greater effort to stimulate customer demand for safer motor vehicles.

Crash Worthiness: Front & Side Occupant Protection

No airbag and poor body shell integritygives zero stars. But just adding an airbag (see below) makes no difference…

The combination of good body shell integrity and an airbag results in a survivable crash.

Emerging Market NCAPs

Global NCAP gives financial and technical support to emerging NCAPs in Latin America and South East Asia.

Despite weak regulatory systems in these regions ASEAN and Latin NCAP have both programmes have seen a rapid increase in the availability of four and five star cars.

In India we have created a ‘Safer Cars for India’ project and this has acted as a catalyst for action by industry and Government who have mandated crash test standards from October 2017.

Global NCAP is also promoting its #nozerostarcars campaign to discourage manufacturers from selling cars that fail to meet minimum UN crash test standards and score zero stars in NCAP ratings.

Crash Avoidance: Better to Stop the Crash than Have One!

Three key crash avoidance systems are today’s priority technologies for passenger cars, buses, commercial vehicles and motor cycles:

Electronic Stability Control (ESC) anti-skid system with capacity to reduce up to 40% of run-off road crashes. Now mandatory in most high income countries.

Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB) automatically applies the brakes if the driver does not react and cancut collisions at low speed by 20%. Pedestrian systems are also appearing and will become an important injury prevention technology.

Motorcycle Anti-lock Brakes (ABS) improves stability and braking performance. Motorcycles equipped withABS have rate of fatal crashes 37 per cent lower thansame models without.

Prediction of US Registered Vehicles with Autonomous Emergency Braking - 2022 Voluntary Commitment

0%

25%

50%

75%

100%

2000 2010 2020 2030 2040 2050

50% in 2027

80% in 2034

In April 2016 UN General Assembly adopted resolution (A/Res/70/260) which encourages Member States to adopt:

Policies and measures to implement United Nations vehicle safety regulations or equivalent national standards to ensure that all new motor vehicles, meet applicable minimum regulations for occupant and other road users protection, with seat belts, air bags and active safety systems as standard.

The World Health Organization has also just released the Save LIVES policy package that includes recommendations for UN Member States on vehicle safety that are fully aligned with Global NCAP’s Road Map.

Michael Bloomberg, WHO Ambassador for NCD’s, is calling on vehicle manufacturers to apply voluntarily the UN minimum crash test standards. Jean Todt, UN Special Envoy for Road Safety, is also advocating an industry self commitment to safer vehicles.

UN Mandate for Safer Cars 2020 – Time for Action

Road Safety is included in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)Which were adopted by UN Member States in 2015& are becoming thebenchmark for best practice in corporate social responsibility.

Goals 3 for Health includes a target to halve the number of globaldeaths and injuries from road crashes by 2020.

Goal 11 for Cities calls for “access to safe, affordable, accessible& sustainable transport systems for all, improving road safety…”

And is also relevant to:

Goal 8 for Work & Growth calls for safe working environments.

Goal 17 for Partnerships which encourages multi-sector co-operation

Corporate Social Responsibility The SDGs and Road Safety

39001 Road traffic safety (RTS) management systems

6.3 RTS performance factors

c) Intermediate safety outcome factors:

- safety of vehicles, especially considering occupant protection, protection of other road users (vulnerable as well as other vehicle occupants), road traffic crash avoidance and mitigation, roadworthiness, vehicle load capacity and securing of loads in and on the vehicle;

Guidance:

…improving the safety rating (for example New Car Assessment Program) level of the vehicle fleet.

Consumer programs test and publish safety ratings for many vehicle types and models which can be used by organizations to assist them in making informed decisions about the level of safety they seek in vehicle fleets.

Global NCAP’s Fleet Purchase Guide

Global NCAP has prepared a Fleet Safety Guide to help managers make better choices in vehicle selection. We recommend:

Choose a Five Star car wherever possible - and never lessthan four stars - as rated by a recognised NCAP.

Where NCAP ratings are unavailable, we suggest usingthe following regulatory benchmarks:

As Mandatory Requirements (For immediate application as the minimum safety requirements)

Frontal & Side collision protection – UN Regulation 94 & 95 Seat belt anchorages belts and restraint systems – UN Regulation 14 & 16Electronic stability control – UN Regulation 140/GTR 8

As Highly Recommended Requirements (Highly recommended for purchase or lease if available)

Pedestrian safety – UN Regulation 127/GTR 9

Autonomous emergency braking

• Accelerate full fleet penetration of vehicles that meet minimum UN crash test standards and have ESC with further incentive & regulatory actions required in emerging markets.

• Promote Autonomous Emergency Braking, Intelligent Speed Adaption, and Motorcycle Anti-Lock Brakes through a combination of incentive & regulatory action.

• Encourage Fleet managers to choose ‘five star’ safety rated vehicles and act as catalyst for fitment of best available technologies.

• Encourage innovation in Autonomous Vehicles through a permissive regulatory environment supported by evidence based research and independent validation to promote user acceptability

Agenda 2030 – What Are the Vehicle Safety Priorities?

Thank You!

is pleased to acknowledge support from: