The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on Tuesday proposed upgrading its five-star rating system for new vehicles by adding standards for crash-avoidance technology and using more human-like test dummies that better measure crash impacts on the body.
Advertisement
Lawmakers blasted the agency over the rating program at a hearing held by a subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. “You think that is the Good Housekeeping seal of approval”, Senator Bill Nelson, a Florida Democrat.
The ratings system will also assess the effectiveness of crash-avoidance technology in vehicles as well as pedestrian protection. The new system will also include half stars as well as full stars to get at nuances in safety features, said Mark Rosekind, head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which administers the ratings system.
In September, 10 major vehicle manufacturers said they have agreed in principle to make automatic emergency braking a standard feature on all future vehicles, but they have not set a time frame.
“For their vehicles to achieve high 5-Star Safety Ratings, manufacturers will need to account for more types of crashes, more kinds of potential injuries to vehicle occupants as well as pedestrians, and technological approaches to avoiding or mitigating crashes in the first place”. And the rating system will reward cars created to protect pedestrians who are struck by them. Passenger compartment intrusion can result in severe injuries and fatalities to occupants contacting the rear end of the struck vehicle.
Currently, NHTSA ranks cars based on crash-worthiness.
Europe has already had so-called pedestrian protection safety ratings for cars for over a decade. All the enhancements to the system are integrated with a common theme of technology improving safety. The measures won broad support, from lawmakers, safety specialists and automakers. “The changes provide more and better information to new-vehicle shoppers that will help accelerate the technology innovations that save lives”, said Anthony Foxx, US Secretary of Transportation, in a statement. There will be additional scrutiny applied towards active safety systems that bolster crash avoidance, as well.
One of the government’s aims in updating the rating system is to put pressure on automakers to include crash prevention technologies in all vehicles, not just more expensive luxury models, Foxx said.
O’Dell said that automakers had over the years become savvy about the safety regulator’s requirements and had learned to design their cars to do well in the ratings.
Five stars will still be NHTSA’s highest rating, but half-stars will join the report card; Trowbridge says this change should help consumers better differentiate between levels of equipment.
Advertisement
“We will provide constructive comments on the agency’s proposal, and our priority will be to focus on information that is based on scientific evaluations and real-world data that is most meaningful to consumers”, the spokeswoman for the industry group said.
