The US Department of Transport announced that it would be embracing a new national strategy for safer roads and vehicles on January 27, 2022 .$14 billion will be given for enhancing traffic safety, while $4 billion will go toward gathering information on collisions and other aspects of vehicle data. The National Highway and Traffic Safety Association’s (NHTSA) New Car Assessment Program must be updated, and the organisation must disclose those revisions in accordance with the law (NCAP). It also wants future cars to have cutting-edge technology to prevent drunk driving and other forms of impairment. The department of transportation will publish suggestions to update the NCAP. By 2024, new regulations for vehicle standards pertaining to drunk driving are also anticipated, with the goal of reducing the frequency of incidents that result in serious injuries.
Specific Safety Technologies to be Adopted
Almost 6,000 pedestrians are killed and 137,000 injured each year in the US, according to statistics. Any vehicle accident injury lawyer will tell you that a significant portion of the personal injury cases they handle include individuals who were ran over, even though they were in pedestrian crossings. When pedestrians begin to cross the road, drivers may find it challenging to stop in time due to distractions including texting, music, and in-car entertainment systems. The US Department of Transportation will therefore require automated emergency and pedestrian automatic emergency braking for new passenger vehicles.
New Protocols for Testing Four More Advanced Driver Assistance Systems
The NHTSA intends to test four advanced driver assistance systems as part of the NCAP update. Lane-keeping technology, pedestrian automatic emergency braking, blind-spot warning, and blind-spot intervention are examples of these. These technologies, in particular, have the potential to avoid dangerous and frequent collisions. The numbers clearly show that change is required. According to the NHTSA, over 840,000 blind spot incidents occur in the United States each year. According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), blind-spot monitoring can reduce accidents during lane changes by up to 14% and crash injuries by up to 23% in this type of incident.
Why Change Is Necessary
Making modifications to the New Automobile Assessment Program (NCAP) is necessary in order for American car consumers to have access to up-to-date information about vehicles on the market. They may readily compare the benefits of each vehicle’s safety systems, selecting those with the most relevant safety technologies. Some of these features, such as automated braking for pedestrians, are important whether driving in the city or on bigger roads, where obstacles can surface and the driver may brake too late.
The US Department of Transportation established a new national strategy for safer roads and cars. It requires the National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) New Car Assessment Program (NCAP) to provide updates and rules on topics like advanced preventative driving technology. It is hoped that improved, more up-to-date vehicle standards would be in place by 2024.
