The focus of the roadmap is on the use of advanced technology to deliver improved passenger car safety but also on how it might assist other road users. The continued use of the overall rating scheme is envisaged, with its separation of assessment into one of four areas, but a move is proposed to a more scenario-based scheme in the future and to greater use of simulation to provide a broader and more robust assessment. An assessment of automated driving is proposed, outside of the main star rating scheme. For primary safety, driver monitoring (start date 2020) is proposed, to mitigate the very significant problems of driver distraction and impairment through alcohol, fatigue, etc. A reward is foreseen which is related both to the problems detected by the system and to the action taken — warning in the first instance, but also speed limitation etc. Autonomous Emergency Steering (AES, 2020) is a technology in its infancy and changes to legislation, expected in 2022, are needed to allow full exploitation of its potential but driver-initiated, in-lane steering support could be rewarded early in the roadmap period. Further developments in Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB, 2020), to address cross-junction, head-on and reversing accidents are proposed. Finally, V2X communication (2024) offers great potential but agreement is first needed on the technology employed. In the field of secondary safety, a review of whiplash testing will rationalise and simplify the testing effort. For pedestrian protection, an upper-body-mass leg impactor will yield more realistic test results while headform testing will be extended to include cyclists. For the first time, tertiary safety is addressed. From 2022, a reward is given to Child Presence Detection, which can detect a child left alone in a car and alert the owner and/or the emergency services, to avoid heatstroke fatalities. A relatively low-technology approach is proposed for assisting rescue teams to extricate occupants from a crashed vehicle. Euro NCAP will collaborate with CTIF to ensure the availability of standardised rescue sheets. Automated driving can offer great safety potential by helping to eliminate driver errors. Euro NCAP will promote the rapid, safe deployment of this technology into the vehicle fleet by means of a categorisation of the type and degree of assistance/automation offered, outside of the main star rating scheme. At the same time, Euro NCAP will provide information to consumers to allay fears but also to maintain realistic expectations of the degree of automation offered and of the need for vigilance in cars where the level of automation is low or is not universal. Finally, in the areas of truck city safety, powered two-wheelers and cyber-security, the roadmap outlines projects with which Euro NCAP may be associated whilst not necessarily taking the lead role. (Author/publisher)
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