The organisation says it’s currently testing a number of European cars equipped with such technologies and will publish its first results on 29th October with the intention of including such systems in its overall safety ratings next year.

The move follows the completion of detailed protocols to test the effectiveness of Autonomous Emergency Braking and Forward Collision Warning systems and will see Euro NCAP assess both low-speed (“City”) and higher speed (“Inter-Urban”) systems to see how well they help drivers to avoid or to mitigate a crash.

The announcement comes as the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) in the United States releases its first crash avoidance ratings of low-speed systems.



Michiel van Ratingen, secretary general of Euro NCAP, said: ‘Systems which help drivers to avoid or mitigate crashes are already in the marketplace and will become commonplace in the coming years. Euro NCAP will lead the assessment of such technologies and its protocols will be the benchmark to help consumers differentiate good systems from bad ones.’