NHTSA Announces Pedestrian Safety-Focused Updates to the New Car Assessment Program

On December 3, 2024, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (“NHTSA”) published a final decision notice that includes significant updates to the U.S. New Car Assessment Program (“NCAP”), commonly known as the 5-Star Safety Ratings program. The NCAP is a voluntary consumer information program administered by NHTSA that provides comparative safety information for new vehicles. The final decision adds four advanced driver assistance systems (“ADAS”) technologies to the NCAP, updates testing procedures and performance criteria for existing ADAS, and establishes a 10-year roadmap for implementing the changes.  

The newly added technologies focus on addressing the “rapidly growing safety risk to pedestrians[.]”[1] NHTSA notes at the outset of the decision that while the total number of passenger vehicle occupant fatalities decreased between 2001 and 2021, pedestrian fatalities increased by 51 percent during the same time period.[2] To address this issue, NHTSA has included the following ADAS technologies, along with standards for their evaluation to the NCAP:

• Pedestrian Automatic Emergency Breaking
• Blind Spot Warning
• Blind Spot Intervention
• Lane Keeping Assist and Lane Departure Warning

In a separate decision, NHTSA also introduced a Crashworthiness Pedestrian Protection Program to the Vulnerable Road User (“VRU”) Safety Program section of the NCAP. The testing for this program focuses on pedestrian-vehicle impact points, such as the windshield or bumper, and the program will identify new vehicle models that meet the minimum threshold for pedestrian safety. The testing and assessment methodologies for the Program are largely based on the European New Car Assessment Program’s (“Euro NCAP”) pedestrian crashworthiness tests and assessments. Unlike Euro NCAP, the U.S. NCAP will initially only provide a pass/fail assessment for crashworthiness pedestrian protection as opposed to a comparative ranking.[3]

NHTSA also updated the testing evaluations for existing crash prevention technologies in the NCAP. To assist consumers make informed decisions about the performance of technologies that are widely incorporated into new vehicles, NHTSA increased the stringency of evaluations for the following ADAS technologies:

• Crash Imminent Braking
• Dynamic Break Support
• Forward Collision Warning

NHTSA believes these NCAP changes will both improve consumer awareness of ADAS safety features and incentivize automakers to incorporate these technologies into new vehicles. Furthermore, these updated testing evaluations align more closely with Euro NCAP and other consumer information programs, potentially reducing costs for automakers serving consumers in both the U.S. and European markets.

NHTSA plans to implement these updates over the next 10 years, with significant changes beginning almost immediately. By the end of 2025, NHTSA’s website will indicate when model year 2026 or later vehicles include all four newly added ADAS systems and meet the performance requirements of the Crashworthiness Pedestrian Protection Program. 

Looking ahead, automakers should expect further updates to the NCAP focusing on crash avoidance technologies and the safety of individuals outside the vehicle. NHTSA agreed with the concerns raised by commenters regarding the growing size of vehicles and stated that the agency intends to develop a program to incorporate pedestrian safety into vehicle design. Furthermore, NHTSA has already expedited research on protections for bicyclists and motorcyclists, and automakers should expect NCAP updates that incorporate testing similar to Euro NCAP’s car-to-motorcycle automatic emergency breaking (“AEB”) technologies, possibly being implemented as early as model year 2028 vehicles.

If you have any questions concerning the material discussed in this client alert, please contact the members of our Product Safety, Investigations, and Recalls practice.