Following the implementation of Autonomous Emergency Braking in the overall safety rating in 2014, Euro NCAP is making its first step towards a scenario-based approach by allowing a driver initiated steering intervention as an alternative to the driver responding to a Forward Collision Warning (FCW) by braking. With this first step, Euro NCAP is acknowledging that there are multiple responses possible to the same threat and that steering, in some cases, may be a better crash avoidance strategy than braking.

Within the Euro NCAP Working Group on AEB/AES, Euro NCAP members, test centers and the automotive industry represented by the ACEA, JAMA, KAMA and CLEPA associations, the first protocols are developed for both AEB Car-to-Car (C2C) and AEB systems, responding to vulnerable road users (VRU). The procedures are an extension to the current AEB C2C and AEB VRU test and assessment protocols, with expected adoption in the rating in 2020. This paper describes both the test and assessment protocols.