Cars with annoying safety systems and hard-to-open door handles will be penalised in ANCAP's new car-safety assessment rules.
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While the safety organisations will update their protocols every three years, and just introduced a new set of rules from 1 January, 2026, the latest overhaul is designed to lay the groundwork for the next set of changes due in 2029.
Up until now, vehicles have been assessed on four key areas – adult occupant protection, child occupant protection, vulnerable road user protection, and safety assist – but these existing tests will be moved into four new pillars.
Now, an ANCAP assessment will involve safe driving, crash avoidance, crash protection, and post-crash safety tests in a bid to better address areas such as annoying driver-safety assist systems, lack of physical controls, and emergency response time.
At its core, the physical crash tests will still be conducted, but now the new Mobile Progressive Deformable Barrier (MPDB) assessment features an increase to mass to reflect the growing number of SUVs on public roads.
The dummies used in crash testing will also be updated with more advanced models, as well as an improved ‘female’ version to better represent occupants.
However, the safe driving assessment will study – in real-world conditions – the accuracy and frequency of features such as speed sign recognition and driver monitoring systems.
According to ANCAP, this is in relation – in part – to the number of consumer complaints of “annoying beeps and bongs” found in new cars, and is designed for manufacturers to better refine their systems to an acceptable level.
The thinking is to make features such as driver monitoring work better, discouraging drivers to turn off the system altogether, according to ANCAP.
The crash avoidance category encompasses features such as autonomous emergency braking (AEB) and lane support systems (LSS) validity – much like the safety assist category from before – but will also factor in the forcefulness of the latter.
Finally, the post-crash safety examination will evaluate a vehicle’s automatic emergency callout feature, as well as the ease of access after an accident where penalties could apply for poor electronic-door operation.
Each of the four new categories will be scored out of 100, with vehicles requiring at least 80 per cent in the crash protection and post-crash safety tests, 70 per cent for crash avoidance, and 60 per cent in safe driving to achieve the maximum five stars.
For reference, last year’s criteria required at least 80 per cent in adult occupant and child occupant protection tests, and 70 per cent in the vulnerable road user protection and safety assist categories.
Neither ANCAP or Euro NCAP – who align protocols to share ratings across both markets where applicable – have tested a new vehicle under the updated protocols.
However, Euro NCAP will be the first to put a model through the new regime around July this year, with likely models including the BMW iX3, GAC Aion UT, or Zeekr 007 GT.
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Tung Nguyen has been in the automotive journalism industry for over a decade, cutting his teeth at various publications before finding himself at Drive in 2024. With experience in news, feature, review, and advice writing, as well as video presentation skills, Tung is a do-it-all content creator. Tung’s love of cars first started as a child watching Transformers on Saturday mornings, as well as countless hours on PlayStation’s Gran Turismo, meaning his dream car is a Nissan GT-R, with a Liberty Walk widebody kit, of course.
