Euro NCAP & ANCAP studies confirm effectiveness of low speed AEB

European New Car Assesment Programme (Euro NCAP) and Australasia New Car Assesment Programme (ANCAP), announced advanced publication of 'Effectiveness of low speed Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB) in real world rear-end crashes' in the online edition of the journal ‘Accident Analysis & Prevention’.

The publication reported:

- that Low Speed AEB technology leads to a 38% reduction in real-world rear-end crashes;
- that there is no significant difference between urban and rural crash benefits;
- that Meta-analysis is an effective method for combining data from various countries.

The publication concluded that Low Speed AEB technology needs widespread fitment for maximum benefits.

Autonomous Emergency Braking is one of the more promising safety technologies that is becoming increasingly common on modern passenger cars. The low speed option normally consists of an automatic brake function that operates for speeds up to 30km/h or 50km/h. Previous studies have predicted significant expected benefits of AEB technology in low speed rear-end crashes but, so far, there has been little evidence that they really work.

Real-world evaluations of advanced safety systems are often limited by slow take-up rates, insufficient crash data and lower crash rates of new, safer vehicles. Euro NCAP, with support of ANCAP, has initiated the ‘Validating Vehicle Safety through Meta-Analysis’ (VVSMA) group that brings together experts from governments, industry, consumer and insurance organisations. The group pooled data from five European countries plus Australia using a standard analysis format and a novel prospective meta-analysis approach. Induced exposure methods were adopted to control for any extraneous effects.

The findings showed a 38% overall reduction in real-world, rear-end crashes for vehicles fitted with low speed AEB compared to a sample of equivalent vehicles with no AEB. There was no statistical difference found between urban (≤60km/h) and rural (>60km/h) speed zones.

Dr Anders Lie, the group chairman from the Swedish Transport Administration, commented: “The meta-analysis approach used in this analysis is a unique academic contribution to the evaluation of vehicle safety technologies internationally and proved to be reliable with robust findings. Clearly, at this level of effectiveness, low speed AEB is potentially an important active safety technology and widespread fitment through the vehicle fleet should be encouraged in the interest of improved vehicle safety.”

Dr Michiel van Ratingen, Secretary General of Euro NCAP, said: “These findings strongly support our decision to make AEB technology a key discriminator in the safety rating of new vehicles. Through VVSMA, we will continue to monitor the effectiveness in reducing real world crashes of the advanced systems that are promoted in order to validate and improve the overall star rating.”