New Car Assessment Program

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety supports the proposal to add rear automatic braking (RAB) systems with pedestrian avoidance capabilities to the New Car Assessment Program. However, they urge NHTSA to use a graduated rating scale rather than a pass-fail indicator to better reflect and communicate differences in system performance to consumers.

Michael Kelley, Policy Director for Missourians for Responsible Transportation (MRT), supports the proposed rule to add rear automatic braking (RAB) systems with pedestrian avoidance to the New Car Assessment Program. He also requests that the rule include testing for dark/inclement weather conditions and specific bicycle speeds to improve pedestrian and cyclist safety.

The National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO) supports the proposed inclusion of rear automatic braking (RAB) systems with pedestrian avoidance ability in the New Car Assessment Program (NCAP). They advocate for additional testing requirements, including dark and inclement weather conditions, testing effectiveness on a broader range of skin tones, and the inclusion of bicycle speeds in the test scenarios.

The Alliance for Automotive Innovation (Auto Innovators), representing the automotive industry, is requesting a 30-day extension of the public comment period. They argue that the current docket is inaccessible and that more time is needed to review the supporting materials to provide substantive feedback.

A nurse supporting the New Car Assessment Program argues that rear-facing automatic braking systems are necessary to improve pedestrian safety. The commenter highlights the high number of pedestrian fatalities and suggests that automated braking is more effective than alarms alone in preventing accidents.

The commenter supports the inclusion of Rear Automatic Braking (RAB) with pedestrian detection in the New Car Assessment Program but argues that the current single-trial testing protocol lacks statistical rigor. They recommend a multi-trial sampling design and the inclusion of specificity controls to better measure system reliability and account for false positives.

The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) supports the inclusion of rear automatic braking systems in the New Car Assessment Program (NCAP) to prevent backover crashes. They provide specific recommendations to improve the representativeness and repeatability of the testing procedures, including mannequin selection, lighting conditions, and scoring methodologies.