Normally, the boffins at Euro NCAP spend their days assessing the safety of new cars by crashing them into walls, driving poles into the side of them and generally destroying them in the name of safety.
Now, however, the Euro NCAP experts have been seeing how safe cars are when they don't crash. Confused? Let us explain.
As you probably know, many modern cars are fitted with crash avoidance systems which are designed to slam on the brakes if the car's electronic brain thinks you're about to have a crash. However, until recently there has been no objective measurement of how well these systems work.
Euro NCAP has put an end to this with its first ever rating of Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB) systems. Eight vehicles with crash-avoidance technology have been compared on the track to see how well their systems work and how likely they are to spare you the expense, and injury, of having a crash.
First off, it's necessary to differentiate between the two types of system on offer. 'AEB City' works at low driving speeds and is designed to reduce the type of rear-end shunts often associated with whiplash injuries. 'Inter-Urban AEB', meanwhile, works at higher speeds, targeting the fatal and serious injury crashes that can be caused by driver inattention.
Euro NCAP tested six cars with the low-speed AEB City systems, scoring them between 0-3 points, which translates to 'Good', 'Adequate' or 'Marginal'. The results are shown below.
Car |
System name |
Score |
Rating |
| Mercedes Benz E-Class | PRE-SAFE | 3.0 | Good |
| Volvo V40 | City Safety & Collision Warning with Full Auto-Brake | 2.9 | Good |
| Mitsubishi Outlander | Forward Collision Mitigation | 2.1 | Good |
| Volvo XC60 | City Safety | 1.9 | Adequate |
| Fiat 500L | City Brake Control | 1.8 | Adequate |
| Ford Focus | Active City Stop | 1.7 | Adequate |
Five cars with the higher-speed Inter-Urban AEB were tested, with the scores as follows.
Car |
System name |
Score |
Rating |
| Mercedes Benz E-Class | PRE-SAFE | 2.7 | Good |
| Volvo V40 | City Safety & Collision Warning with Full Auto-Brake | 2.6 | Good |
| Volkswagen Golf |
Front Assist |
2.2 | Good |
| Mitsubishi Outlander |
Forward Collision Mitigation |
1.9 | Adequate |
| Honda Civic |
Collision Mitigation Brake System |
0.44 | Marginal |
As you can see, not all of the systems performed as well as each other -- something to perhaps bear in mind when you're buying your next car.
Michiel van Ratingen, Euro NCAP Secretary General, said: "With the limited number of systems available and tested, we can already see real differences in their performance and expected real world benefit.
"However we compliment the manufacturers of the systems in today's launch, whether the system scored good, adequate or marginal, for already offering this technology onto their cars and hope that our results will help them to further develop their systems."
Visit the Euro NCAP website for more information.
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