Who and What is ANCAP?
All new vehicles sold in Australia and surrounding areas must undergo testing to assess how safe that car is. Graded with a star rating, the more stars a car has, the safer that car is. ANCAP, also known as the Australasian New Car Assessment Program, provides a substantial overview of what makes a car tick the boxes safety wise.
A few years ago, ANCAP changed the parameters in what they use to assess the safety of a car. There are four key areas: Adult Occupant Protection, Child Occupant Protection, Vulnerable Road User Protection, and Safety Assist.
Adult Occupant Protection
ANCAP looks at the kind of protection, the kind of safety, offered to the most likely passengers in the front and second row seats of a car.
They look at offset impacts, side impacts, whiplash injuries for front and second row, Autonomous Emergency Braking in a city setting, and rate the categories appropriately.
Full width and frontal offset are the highest for adults, with a score of 8 being applied along with 8 for Side Impact and Pole (oblique).
That last one is not uncommon, as it’s been found that drivers looking at an object in a crash situation have a higher tendency to impact that object.
To achieve a five star rating for Adult Occupant Protection, the car must achieve a total of 80% of the possible maximum score of 38.
Child Occupant Protection
80% is also the minimum requirement for the Child Occupant Protection, which has a maximum score of 49. There are just four margins here, Dynamic (Front) at 16 points, Dynamic (Side) with 8, 12 points for Child Restraint Installation, and 13 for On Board Features.
On the star rating, Adult Occupant and Child Occupant both have 80% to reach five stars. 70% is four stars, 60% for three stars, 50% for two stars, and 40% for just one star. Vulnerable Road User Protection and Safety Assist have 60% and 70% respectively.
Vulnerable Road User Protection
Vulnerable Road User Protection takes a look at Head Impact (24 points), with 6 points apiece for Upper Leg Impact, Lower Leg Impact, pedestrian related AEB (Autonomous Emergency Braking) and cyclist related AEB. The specifications here are about looking at frontal designs of vehicles; will it mitigate injury to a pedestrian and/or cyclist, and will it overall mitigate or avoid impact with pedestrians and/or cyclists?
Safety Assist
The final sector, Safety Assist, measures the amount of safety features available, and the effectiveness of those systems. The current maximum score is 13, with 2020 moving that to 16.
Speed Assistance Systems are rated to 3 points, Seat Belt reminders also rate as 3, and Lane Support Systems as 4. AEB in an inter-urban environment is current 3, with that increasing to 4 in 2020. A new category, Junction Assist, with two points, comes in next year.
Scores achieved in each physical and performance test feed into the respective area of assessment. The overall star rating of a vehicle is limited by its lowest performing area of assessment.
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