Agreement between all car manufacturers on a minimum safety standard in all new vehicles sold would be a significant milestone in automotive safety, said Jean Todt, United Nations secretary general’s special envoy for road safety. Automotive manufacturers are pushing safety technology at the forefront of their marketing strategy, but they are not doing so quickly enough, Todt said.
The UN special envoy for road safety also calls on consumers to examine safety information before buying a car, whether it is a new car of a used unit. This is in reference to information on the car’s performance in crash testing, which should help the public make informed decisions before owning a vehicle, he added.
“I am very proud to acknowledge the good effort of MIROS (Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research) in leading the ASEAN New Car Assessment Programme (ASEAN NCAP). Having done crash testing for more than 100 car models sold in the ASEAN region, I believe the results have benefitted millions of car owners,” Todt said in his speech at an MoU signing between automotive platform Motorist and MIROS yesterday.
The current ASEAN NCAP car testing protocol that applies from 2021 to 2025 brought additional parameters for safety assistance systems, which includes testing for motorcycle safety. The first model to be tested under the current 2021-2025 ASEAN NCAP protocol was the Perodua Ativa, which scored the full five-star rating in its 2021 test.
The ASEAN NCAP assessment for autonomous emergency braking (AEB) systems are carried out in two sections; AEB City and AEB Inter-Urban. AEB City assesses the effectiveness of a system by driving the tested vehicle forwards at a speed ranging from 10 km/h-60 km/h, towards a stationary vehicle.
Meanwhile, AEB Inter-Urban tests the effectiveness of the system by driving the tested vehicle forwards at speeds between 30 km/h and 60 km/h, towards another vehicle that is travelling at a constant speed. These tests are carried out in addition to the existing crash tests for adult occupant protection (AOP) and child occupant protection (COP).