ANCAP 2023-2025 test structure detailed

ANCAP has made significant changes to its safety testing protocol for 2023-2025.

The scoring system relating to how a vehicle’s structure performs in the event of a collision has been altered, as has the grading of autonomous emergency braking performance, child occupant protection, cyclist and motorcyclist protection, driver monitoring systems, restraint system performance, and even rescue and extraction performance protocols.

Adult Occupant Protection still requires a minimum 80 per cent score for a vehicle to achieve a five-star result. Frontal impact (offset and full-width), side impact (AMDB, far side and oblique pole), and whiplash (front and rear) scoring is unchanged; however, rescue and extraction performance is now assessed against a four-point system instead of two.

As part of the rescue and extraction performance scoring, vehicle manufacturers will be required to demonstrate how their product can allow occupants to escape a submerged vehicle more easily and/or allow rescuers to access trapped occupants. ANCAP will assess whether car doors are able to be opened without battery power and electric windows remain functional and able to be opened for up to two minutes after submergence.

The maximum attainable score in the Adult Occupant Protection rises to 40 points, up from 38.

The Child Occupant Protection category is unchanged, and still requires a minimum 80 per cent score for a vehicle to achieve a five-star rating. Dynamic tests (front and rear), CRS installation and vehicle-based assessment scores are unchanged, with the maximum attainable score in the category remaining at 49 points.

However, Child Presence Detection – the ability for a vehicle to notify the driver or emergency services if a child has inadvertently been left in a locked car – is now included within the updated 2023-2025 protocol set.

Perhaps the largest changes to the ANCAP test structure come from the Vulnerable Road User Protection category. To achieve a five-star result, a vehicle must now achieve a 70 per cent mark or higher, up from 60 per cent previously.

Interestingly, the required points to obtain top marks in the head impact test (adult and child) falls from 24 to 12, while cyclist head protection is added to a value of six points. Upper and lower leg impact protection rises from 12 points to 18, while AEB pedestrian (forward and reverse) and AEB cyclist score targets remain unchanged.

For 2023-2025, and within the Vulnerable Road User Protection category, ANCAP has added a requirement for both AEB and Lane Support systems to detect motorcycles. Respectively, each is scored from a total of six or three points, taking the total number of points attainable in the category to 63 (up from 54).

ANCAP says pedestrians and cyclists make up around 15 per cent of all road-related fatalities and that the new scoring system will provide a better insight into the injury risks presented to both by today’s new vehicles.

Further, the addition of motorcycle detecting AEB and LSS will assess a vehicle’s ability to brake for an approaching motorcycle in intersection turning scenarios, and where a vehicle is approaching a stationary or moving motorcycle from behind. Vehicles will also be tested for their ability to detect and prevent side-swipe-style crashes with a motorcycle through more sophisticated lane support systems.

Finally, and in the increasingly important Safety Assist category, we find the five-star pass mark rising from 60- to 70 per cent. Occupant status (SBR and driver monitoring) scoring remains unchanged at a maximum possible three points, as does speed assistance system (three points) and AEB interurban and rear car-to-car (four points).

Changes have, however, been made elsewhere within the category. AEB junction performance is now scored out of four points (up from two), lane support systems out of three points (down from four), while AEB head-on performance is added (one point).

The addition of improved AEB capabilities requires a vehicle to be able to detect and react to an oncoming vehicle with a high approach speed and in car-to-car crossing scenarios – each requiring a sensor with a wider field of view. ANCAP says performance testing of AEB head-on and junction systems will encourage enhancements to vehicle systems to allow oncoming vehicles to be detected and autonomous emergency braking applied to avoid or mitigate a crash.

More information on changed to ANCAP testing protocols can be found here.