The agency’s roadmap for 2025 outlines targets for automobile manufacturers to introduce levels of autonomous technology into their cars. It has asked to add driver monitoring technology, automatic emergency steering and autonomous emergency braking by 2020. And it has also asked that Cars gain vehicle-to-infrastructure communication technology by the year 2024.
By 2022, it wants carmakers to introduce whiplash and rear-end crash protection, pedestrian and cyclist safety features, and it asks for improvements to rescue, extrication and child-protection systems.
Euro NCAP secretary general, Michiel van Ratingen, said, “The potential safety benefits of automated driving are huge. If we can eliminate human error, we should see road casualty numbers tumbling and many lives being saved. But there is a lot of misunderstanding, over-expectation and perhaps some suspicion of a world in which cars can drive themselves. Our role will be to provide clear information to consumers about the degree of automation in a car and how safely that automation has been implemented. It is quite a challenge, but essential if Euro NCAP is to continue pressing for improvements from those who make cars and providing meaningful information to those who buy them.”
