Rob Croson
Elio Addict
NHTSA's claim for the changing criteria is that more and more systems are becoming standard. This causes more and more vehicles to cluster in the top "5 star" rating. What's the use of having a rating system if everyone gets the highest score?
To keep the ratings differentiated and meaningful, they are adding additional criteria and system requirements to hit that top score. In order to get the top 5-star rating you have to be good not only at protecting the occupants from injury, but in preventing the accident from happening in the first place. And yes, that includes pedestrian detection, forward and reverse autobraking, etc.
To keep the ratings differentiated and meaningful, they are adding additional criteria and system requirements to hit that top score. In order to get the top 5-star rating you have to be good not only at protecting the occupants from injury, but in preventing the accident from happening in the first place. And yes, that includes pedestrian detection, forward and reverse autobraking, etc.
"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. The result will be new incentives for vehicle manufacturers to produce safer vehicles," NHTSA said in a statement.