The federal government announced changes to its new vehicle safety tests on Tuesday, aimed to enhance vehicle safety and make it tougher for vehicles to attain the maximum five-star rating. The new regulations in the New Car Assessment Program (NCAP) are due to come into effect for the 2010 model year, and include consolidating front, side impact and rollover results into one rating, introducing a pole crash test, and add female test dummies to the testing.
Other new requirements will involve testing and rating vehicles for the level of risk of leg injuries, and reporting the safety technology incorporated into each vehicle, according to Automotive News. All these new measures should help reduce the number, at least initially, until manufacturers catch up to meet the standards, of the near 90 percent of all new vehicles that get a maximum five of five star rating under the current standards.
“Enhanced government safety ratings are intended to further the continuous advancement of vehicle safety,” said the administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Nicole Nason.
The NHTSA proposed the new standards at the Detroit auto show in January of 2007 giving automakers a chance to optimize their vehicles for the new standards, although this would not likely be feasible as vehicles are designed with more lead-time than that.
The new pole-crash test includes driving a vehicle into a 9.8-inch thick pole at 20mph at a sharp angle of 75 degrees. The new system will add the pole test and combine it with three other tests to provide buyers with one overall. The most visible change should revolve around the fact the NHTSA will require manufacturers to report whether or not vehicles are equipped with electronic stability, a lane departure warning system or forward collision warning systems. These are likely to become selling points, so look for the latter two systems especially to trickle down to the compact car level, as they are offered as options in luxury cars only today. VW is already putting electronic stability control systems in all its models for 2009.
