Euro NCAP has launched its Road Map 2025, setting out for the first time the programme’s priorities for the mobility and technological revolution the auto industry is beginning to experience.

The objective of the Road Map 2025 is to offer clarity and confidence to motoring consumers, highlighting new automated driving technologies and raising awareness of their benefits whilst helping to ensure their safety potential is fully realised.

Euro NCAP says it will challenge vehicle manufacturers to offer the best possible technology as standard in all segments and countries, protecting not only car occupants of all ages but also increasingly addressing the safety of other more vulnerable road users.

“Safety has come a long way since we started testing cars twenty years ago and consumers now see it as a key aspect of their purchasing decision,” said Euro NCAP President Pierre Castaing. “Many predict that the car and our personal mobility will change more in the next ten years than it has in the last one hundred. Going forward, one of Euro NCAP’s vital roles will be to offer clear, impartial guidance on these emerging and increasingly automated technologies, whilst also raising awareness of their significant life-saving benefits.”

The Road Map outlines a timeline for the introduction of key protocol enhancements, including:

  • Primary Safety: Driver Monitoring (2020), Automatic Emergency Steering (2020, 2022), Autonomous Emergency Braking (2020, 2022), Vehicle to Vehicle Data Exchange and Vehicle to Infrastructure (2024)
  • Secondary Safety: Whiplash/Rear-end Crash Protection (2020), Pedestrian and Cyclist Safety (2022)
  • Tertiary Safety: Rescue, Extrication and Safety (2020), Child Presence Detection (2022)

“The potential safety benefits of automated driving are huge,” said EuroNCAP’s Secretary General Michiel van Ratingen. “If we can eliminate human error, we should see road casualty numbers tumbling and many lives being saved. But there is a lot of misunderstanding, over-expectation and perhaps some suspicion, of a world in which cars can drive themselves. Our role will be to provide clear information to consumers about the degree of automation in a car and how safely that automation has been implemented. Quite a challenge, but essential if Euro NCAP is to continue pressing for improvements from those who make cars and providing meaningful information to those who buy them.”