Overview
The European New Car Assessment Programme (EuroNCAP) revolutionised the 'secondary' safety of new vehicles by independently testing them and making the results of the tests available to the public, thereby encouraging manufactures to improve their products in safety related areas. Primary New Car Assessment Programme (PNCAP) seeks to assess the primary safety features of new vehicles in a similar fashion and make the results available to the public in order to allow an informed choice to be made when purchasing a vehicle.
The objective of this research is
- to deliver draft protocols that could be used to assess the primary safety performance of new cars and
- allow the publication of the results in an objective and clear format.
This will include full justification for the proposed methodologies and a demonstration of their ability to differentiate between a small range of cars. Areas to be tested include:
- braking;
- handling and stability;
- lighting;
- visibility and
- ergonomics.
The researchers for this contract are carrying out scientific analysis of different primary safety areas and generating protocols which will form the basis for test procedures. They will assess the proposed test procedures on a small range of vehicles. Particular emphasis will be placed on the need to have objective and consistent results, and the ability to differentiate between cars.