Drivers for Active Safety

The market for active safety is affected by both the regulatory environment and influence from bodies such as IIHS and NCAP, in addition to consumer demand.

This is a summary of some key current market factors.  The focus is on North America and Europe – the importance of global platforms means that these two markets are inter-related in terms of safety.

Industry bodies

• The AEB Test Group comprises insurance bodies from Germany, Sweden, the UK and the US (GDV, Folksham, Thatcham, Insurance Institite of Highway Safety) and has the objective of defining an international standard.  This standard was adopted by Euro NCAP for their 2013-16 test program.
• Due to increased emphasis on pedestrian protection and enhanced occupant safety criteria, from 2016, it will not be possible to achieve a EuroNCAP 5* rating without the fitment of Lane Departure Warning and/ or Automatic Emergency Braking.
• As part of a new focus on crash avoidance technologies, US NCAP “recommends electronic stability control, lane departure warning, and forward collision warning systems that meet US NCAP criteria”.
• The IIHS has recently revealed the results of a study which demonstrates that DAS systems have the potential to reduce the number and severity of crashes, making it likely that they will add active safety criteria into their ‘Top Safety Picks’ in future.

Regulation

European Commision has mandated fitment of LDW and AEB systems for heavy trucks and buses starting in Q4 2013, with 100% fitment required by Q4 2015

• This is a two-stage regulation, with enhanced AEB performance requirements from Q4 2016
• The mandate also proposed that the same performance requirements would apply for systems voluntarily fitted to passenger cars by OEMs.
• Creates common performance specification for cars and trucks and simplifies future mandates of LDW, AEB on passenger cars

The NHTSA Rulemaking and Research Priority Plan for 2011-13 outlines that NHTSA is developing performance requirements and test procedures to evaluate:

• FCW and AEB systems for light vehicles and heavy vehicles; NHTSA will decide whether to require AEB systems (decision is overdue)
• LDW and LKAS/ Lane Guidance Systems; NHTSA will decide whether to require automated Lane Keeping systems (decision is overdue)
• Enhanced Rear Visibility of Vehicles (Final Rule due by end 2012)
• Blind Spot Detection and Pedestrian Detection are also under investigation in the longer term, with decisions due in 2013