Driving|The organization that conducts crash tests is tightening its evaluation criteria in Europe, because cars have turned into computers equipped with design quirks.
The summary is made by artificial intelligence and checked by a human.
Euro NCAP, the crash test program in Europe, will change its testing methods at the beginning of next year
The program rewards clarity and physical buttons at a time when digital design whims are increasing.
According to General Secretary Michiel van Ratinge, the best prizes are awarded to cars that do well at all levels of safety: before, during and after the collision.
The tests are not mandatory for car manufacturers, but it is an honor for brands to strive for a full five stars.
Modern cars have changed so much that the organization performing crash tests in Europe is renewing its testing methods.
Test program Euro NCAP begins to punish excessive digital and design whims that risk security.
For example, the car’s electrically operated external door handles must work after a crash, the program requires.
In many electric cars, aerodynamic benefits are sought by hiding the handles in the door while driving, but then the rescuers may not have a handle to grab onto. HS told recently about the problem and the deaths it caused.
An example of a retractable door handle. The picture shows the Zeekr 001 electric car.
In the year Established in 1997, Euro NCAP is best known for crash tests and the stars awarded to cars based on safety.
The tests are not mandatory for car manufacturers, but it is an honor for brands to strive for a full five stars. The results are used in car marketing.
Euro NCAP reviews its tests every three years, but the change at the beginning of next year is one of the biggest in the program.
The organization divides the test into four parts: safe driving, preventing collisions, safety in a collision and handling the aftermath.
“The 2026 protocols further strengthen the accuracy and importance of our tests, rewarding cars that perform well at all levels of safety: before, during and after a crash,” says the Secretary General Michiel van Ratingen in the bulletin.
The tests consist of a pot of a maximum of one hundred points, based on which the stars are distributed.
Tesla is one of the brands that makes really reduced cockpits. This is what the cockpit of the new Model Y looks like.
Money the new car is full of touch screens. Euro NCAP now thanks to the cockpit’s ease of use and rewards clarity and physical buttons.
More tests are carried out in normal driving conditions. On the road, for example, speed warning devices are being investigated. EU regulation requiresthat new cars report overspeeding, but the “beep” feature divides opinion.
“Driver assistance systems have been criticized for annoying warnings or distracting functions. They are no longer evaluated only on the test track, but also when driving in real life. The goal is to improve consumer acceptance,” the organization writes.
So Euro NCAP does not aim to eliminate various warnings, but tries to find cars in which they have been implemented in a way that satisfies everyone.
Next times in traffic, how reliably the car recognizes speed limits is investigated. A bonus comes from systems that monitor the driver’s driving ability and detect, for example, a seizure or intoxication.
The body perception of the actual crash tests is expanded, i.e. the program examines how short and tall adults fare in a crash.
For the aftercare of an accident situation, the program requires that the driving battery of electric cars is well insulated and that the driver is informed if the battery catches fire.
HS interviewed Secretary General van Ratingen last spring. Even at that time, his words exuded the pain of contemporary car design.
“We have seen strange examples of how [sivu]the use of the window is placed in an illogical place. People don’t realize that unless they’ve read the manual first,” he commented at the time.
Euro NCAP test results are published periodically online. Basically, safe cars are driven in Europe, because this year the vast majority of cars received full stars.
New Teslas and some Chinese electric cars are – perhaps to the surprise of some – among the test winners. On the other hand, they contain digital solutions that Euro NCAP may intervene in from next year.
Basically, Volkswagen’s small SUV T-Cross and the cheap Chinese car Dongfeng Box remained in the three stars, which It has been sold in Finland under the name Nammi Box.