By John Bozzella
Vehicles today are safer than they’ve ever been.
Don’t take my word for it.
Test drive any new vehicle, and you’ll find breakthrough safety technology across the entire fleet – think driver-assistance systems that help you stay in your lane or advanced safety features that better protect you and others in a collision.
Life-saving innovations.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s 5-Star Safety Ratings program (aka the New Car Assessment Program or NCAP) promotes the adoption of these new and emerging vehicle safety innovations.
NCAP is a valuable tool to both inform prospective new car buyers about a vehicle’s safety performance and encourage automakers to achieve higher ratings by appealing to consumer safety demands.
How does it work?
NHTSA selects a number of new vehicles for NCAP evaluation every year.
These vehicles undergo rigorous testing and receive a rating based on how well they perform during testing. NHTSA also provides helpful information on crash avoidance features and recommended safety technologies that have passed NCAP testing.
That’s how it’s supposed to work.
Unfortunately, NCAP isn’t keeping pace with auto industry innovation and changes in the marketplace.
New vehicle technologies aren’t evaluated and rated fast or often enough to help consumers make informed purchasing decisions.
Credit to NHTSA for taking some recent steps to modernize NCAP. Automakers support the new test procedures to evaluate the performance of crash avoidance technologies, including automatic emergency braking.
But more changes are needed.
I outlined my NCAP concerns earlier this year on Capitol Hill and encouraged NHTSA to rethink its approach – not just to reinvigorate the program but to reestablish the U.S. as a leader in advancing safe vehicles on our roads.
Today, we outlined a detailed plan to reform NCAP that’s focused on more public awareness, improving program effectiveness, and better collaboration and transparency.
We’re asking NHTSA to set up a schedule to regularly update the program and align it with the agency’s regulatory and deregulatory priorities.
NCAP is for consumers. Most of us see the ratings on the window sticker when car shopping. But more people need to know about and understand NCAP. That should include more public education and improved access to ratings information.
With the right reforms, NCAP can promote innovation, encourage continuous safety improvements and empower consumers with clear, comparable information about vehicle safety – all good things.
NHTSA Administrator Jonathan Morrison has signaled a commitment to work with the industry and other stakeholders that prioritizes safety and promotes automotive innovation. We’re glad to see that, too.
Consumers deserve timely and regularly updated safety ratings that help them navigate the car-buying process and reflect the leaps and bounds the auto industry has made in safety.
A modernized NCAP can do both.
John Bozzella is president and CEO of Alliance for Automotive Innovation.
Read Alliance for Automotive Innovation’s NCAP plan HERE.