Euro NCAP & Touchscreen Reliance

Seth Brundle

Some good news…

the complexity and ability of the touchscreen has expanded with every new model, and while they started as glorified stereo interfaces and on-screen maps, touchscreens now control some of the most fundamental aspects of our cars.

Euro NCAP, the independent safety and crash-test expert organisation, wants to put a stop to all that. Or some of it, at least. NCAP has just put the world’s carmakers on notice, that from 2026 anyone who wants to score a maximum five-star safety rating will have to roll back their reliance on touchscreens.

Euro NCAP’s technical director, Richard Schram, commented on the plans: “Euro NCAP will indeed incentivise OEMs to have physical, easy-to-use and tactile controls of the main driving features like wipers, warning lights and indicators.”

The proliferation of on-screen controls has rocketed in recent years, both as touchscreen technology has improved and allowed such functionality, and as carmakers have cottoned on to the fact that it’s easier and (much) cheaper to add a line of code to create an on-screen button than it is to create a physical button that passes all of the usual reliability and longevity tests. Equally, carmakers are keen to push car buyers down a path of paying for optional extras, or even taking out monthly subscriptions for them, after the car has been initially purchased, and the only way to make that work is to keep piling more and more functions on to the touchscreen.

https://www.irishtimes.com/motors/2024/05/15/screens-arent-safe-euro-ncap-lays-down-the-law-to-carmakers/

timmyntc

“Euro NCAP will indeed incentivise OEMs to have physical, easy-to-use and tactile controls of the main driving features like wipers, warning lights and indicators

I hope that's not the full list - touchscreens for AC is a PITA

colm_mcm

Euro NCAP is desperately trying to reinvent itself now that we’ve jumped the shark on physical safety on cars.

kirving

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122142001#Comment_122142001

I don't think that's really a fair assessment.

The Euro NCAP programmed has undoubtedly saved tens of thousands of lives by effectively** mandating more safety equipment over time, and Euro NCAP themselves have played a pivotal role in the move from Passive to Active safety.

ADAS systems are incredibly difficult to assess in the whole, but Euro NCAP do at least have standardised tests which manufacturers need** to pass, which attempt to replicated the most common forms of injury.

** They are not a regulator as the headline incorrectly states, but a 1-Star car just isn't going to sell.

colm_mcm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122143432#Comment_122143432

This article sums up my issue with NCAP pretty well

https://www.carmagazine.co.uk/features/opinion/tom-wiltshire/dacia-jogger-euro-ncap/

PsychoPete

Screens are a massive distraction but does anyone honestly care what ncap rating a car has ? Working in dealers for as long as i did, I've never heard of anyone making a decision buying a car because of the ncap

User1998

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122145222#Comment_122145222

I’d maybe care a little bit about the driver/passenger safety but wouldn’t care at all about pedestrian safety or any of the other stuff. As selfish as it sounds.

Cordell

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122143790#Comment_122143790

No, that article is unfair towards EuroNCAP modern assessment. Car safety, even when is only considered for adult passengers, has evolved beyond car's body behavior in accidents. Today active safety features, that is the ones preventing accidents from happening, are just as important if not more important than the passive features (the ones who mitigate the impact of accidents).

kirving

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122143790#Comment_122143790

The best way to survive a crash is not to get into one in the first place.

Ask any CAR road tester and you’ll hear a litany of complaints about lane-keeping aids steering them towards oncoming traffic, or adaptive speed assist systems that slam the anchors on while they’re doing 70mph on the motorway. Unlike ABS or ESP, these systems are constantly interfering and often feel as though they need significantly more development outside of a laboratory and on real roads. Most people I’ve spoken to just turn them off at the start of every journey.

For the most part, that's just typical motoring journalist hyperbole, with plenty of confirmation bias throw in. Motoring journalists pushing a car to the (legal) limit aren't the target market for ADAS anyway, it's the person distracted on the phone, someone who's tired, or forget to check their blindspot.

There are of course cases where the ADAS will do something that the driver isn't expecting, or act abruptly - but the vast majority of systems do need to be pushed quite hard before they'll react in what is a fairly conservative manner. Drivers never want to admit that they weren't paying attention, can't keep within the lines, or weren't informed enough to understand the limitations of the system. I do think there should be mandatory training given by dealers, or at least a mandatory video to watch on the car dashboard to explain exactly how the ADAS works, and not to overestimate it's capability.

NCAP should award points based on how much harm is attributed to that crash type, and in some respects I actually disagree with the fact they've over-weighted the pedestrian/VRU scores. Compared to drivers, relatively few pedestrians and cyclist are killed by motorists.

However, NCAP targets and EU rules need to predict the future somewhat. There is potentially years of lag between the time a safety feature is mandated, developed, introduced, sold, and finally makes a measurable, statistical difference to road safety. Pedestrian deaths make up a small percentage of overall death today but without any action, a fall in driver deaths will put the focus on pedestrians again in a few years, so NCAP need to make it attractive for manufacturers to act now.

Lastly, pedestrian detection systems (for now at least) are often just an upgrade or an add-on to existing systems, so probably aren't a huge overhead cost or design wise. You still need a lane centering camera, the next level up might have a slightly better processor to also search for pedestrians. If you can see, and brake for a pedestrian, then there is less likelihood to need an expensive pedestrian airbag.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122145222#Comment_122145222

Like vaccines making the measles a non-issue, NCAP has made crash performance less and less of a differentiator between cars. Personally, I wouldn't buy a car which didn't achieve 5-Stars (for occupant protection), and the last car I bought, I travelled almost 600km one way to buy the version with the top-end ADAS, as they were thin on the ground due to Covid parts shortages.

colm_mcm

I’m not arguing that crash prevention is a bad thing. I’m saying their star ratings are misleading given NCAP is synonymous with crash testing.

Cordell

That is not true anymore. For years now they started to award and deduct points for crash prevention feature starting with simple things like seat belt reminder. And those car journalists have no excuse to not know this.