Technology has never grown or improved as quickly as it does today. And that’s at the forefront of an announcement from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The department says that it’s considering some significant changes and updates to its 5-star safety rating program. Here’s a quick look at what they’ve put on the table.
According to the NHTSA, the consideration of these updates is a direct result of the Biden-Harris Administration’s efforts to improve safety. To that end, it proposes a number of updates to the New Car Assessment Program or NCAP.
First, it wants to recommend four new driver-assistance technologies including lane-keep support, blind-spot detection, blind-spot intervention, and pedestrian automatic emergency braking.
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Many of those technologies are standard across lots of vehicles from brands like Toyota, Hyundai, or Tesla. Still, many others, like Chevrolet, Dodge, and Jeep sell vehicles where that technology is only available as an option.
The agency is also considering “strengthening the current testing procedures and performance criteria for the driver-assistance technologies already included in NCAP.” It also wants to get comments from the public about how it can develop a meaningful rating system for driver-assistance technologies.
That’s important since it’s been found that many drivers don’t even know which features their vehicle might have. The NHTSA also wants to establish a 10-year roadmap for future NCAP updates as well as find a way to provide crash avoidance ratings on the window stickers of new and used vehicles.
Finally, the one that many people might be most interested in is this part of the report: “Considering the potential addition of emerging vehicle technologies related to driver distraction, alcohol detection, seat belt interlocks, intelligent speed assist, driver monitoring systems and rear seat child reminder assist.”
That sure sounds like it could potentially cut down on the number of drunk drivers and maybe even get more people to wear their seatbelts. We get the feeling that a few of you in the comments might not be super keen on ideas like driver monitoring systems or intelligent speed assist though. Starting today, the public has 60 days to comment on these proposed updates.
