Euro NCAP Details New Testing for Heavy-Truck Safety Rating

New tests for a Truck Safe rating scheme aim to emulate real-world collisions and encourage OEMs to fit collision avoidance technologies and improve driver vision.

July 3, 2024

Ryan Gehm

Euro NCAP will test for Lane Support Systems that not only provide a warning but also can prevent the truck from unintentionally leaving the lane via active steering. (Euro NCAP)

Euro NCAP has revealed the elements it is considering as part of an upcoming Truck Safe rating, and how it intends to test and benchmark truck performance. The announcement was made to an audience of international road safety experts at the NCAP24 World Congress in Munich, Germany, in April. The action is intended to mitigate heavy trucks’ impact on road safety. The organization cited data showing that trucks are involved in almost 15% of all EU road fatalities but represent only 3% of vehicles on Europe’s roads.

Euro NCAP believes AEB systems can be more effective in helping to reduce the number of fatalities that occur when a truck runs into the back of another vehicle. (Euro NCAP)

Euro NCAP says the future rating scheme is designed to go further and faster than current EU truck safety regulations. The organization’s goal is to drive innovation and hasten the adoption of active-safety technologies such as automatic emergency braking (AEB) and lane support systems (LSS), while balancing the needs of the different commercial-vehicle sectors across Europe.

“[This] marks a significant moment in the development of Euro NCAP’s Truck Safe rating scheme,” Michiel van Ratingen, secretary general Euro NCAP, said at NCAP24. “Euro NCAP highlights the need for trucks to be better equipped with life-saving technologies, particularly related to crash avoidance, vision and aspects of post-crash rescue. The protocols announced [in Munich] that will be formally published [in May 2024] demonstrate that best-practice test methods developed over the last decade for passenger cars can be turned into useful guidelines for the design of future, safer heavy trucks.”

Volvo’s Side Collision Avoidance safety system uses a dual radar on each side of the truck that detects when other road users enter the blind-spot area. (Euro NCAP)

The new rating builds on Euro NCAP’s Light Commercial Van safety scheme. All protocols and requirements are being developed in collaboration with Euro NCAP members, test facilities and reviewed with manufacturers.

The organization decided to publicly present the procedures and requirements ahead of the rating to encourage the industry to take note and react accordingly, van Ratingen said. Major suppliers and vehicle manufacturers demonstrated their latest advanced safety technologies at NCAP24, including DAF, Scania, Volvo and ZF.

“Over the past 12 months, we have worked closely with vehicle manufacturers to develop the tests, and consulted with different stakeholders across Europe, including distributors, haulers, insurers, city authorities, legislators and strategic road organizations to fully understand the complexities of making trucks and roads safer,” Matthew Avery, director of strategy development at Euro NCAP, said in a statement. “The future Truck Safe rating will incentivize good safety performance in both cities and highways and allow optimization of operational safety and cost. Our aim is to progress towards best practice in all types of vehicle safety, rather than just meeting minimum standards.”

Tests emulate the real world

MAN’s TGX truck replaces an actual mirror with a smaller camera monitor system, or eMirror, which provides a larger field of view with less image distortion. (Euro NCAP)

Truck accidents vary depending on the road environment (city or highway) as well as the collision partner (passenger car or vulnerable road user). Accidents between trucks and vulnerable road users (VRUs) currently account for 25% of all EU fatalities, according to Euro NCAP. The new tests aim to emulate real-world collisions and encourage manufacturers to fit collision avoidance technologies and improve driver vision. Euro NCAP says it will expand the program in the future to include crash protection as well.

“It’s about taking a holistic approach to making both trucks and roads safer: from driver behavior and monitoring to road infrastructure, to adopting assisted driving technologies currently available on cars, and looking at the structure of trucks and how they perform in accidents,” said Ulric Långberg of the Swedish Association of Road Transport Companies. “The sooner we recognize that safety technologies on trucks lag behind those on cars, the quicker we will be able to reduce the number of fatal accidents involving trucks.”

The requirements are expected to evolve as manufacturers provide feedback on the tests. Euro NCAP’s Truck Safe roadmap includes increased active-safety maneuvering requirements starting in 2027, and the crash testing of trucks to encourage better passive safety protection commencing in 2030. The vehicles will be tested by sector and will focus on city delivery, highway distribution, long haul, and tipper and refuse trucks. The organization says initial ratings will be released in November 2024.

The new Truck Safe rating scheme will be a first for the sector and will enable all stakeholders in the freight industry to identify and assess the safety level of trucks, according to Euro NCAP’s Avery. “Not only will this deliver enhanced safety for drivers but also create opportunities for those operators that invest in the safest vehicle, making the scheme attractive to insurers and freight shippers alike,” he said. “In creating a market for safety, Euro NCAP will encourage manufacturers and suppliers to innovate further, increasing the safety benefits as the ratings evolve.”

Scania applauds Euro NCAP’s scaled approach to safety testing, with an initial focus on collision avoidance and driver vision systems. Active-safety maneuvering requirements will increase and crash testing for passive safety protection will come in future iterations. (Euro NCAP)

Key safety technologies being assessed by Euro NCAP include Intelligent Speed Adaptation, which uses cameras and GPS mapping to automatically read the speed limit and control the vehicle’s speed, and camera monitor systems (aka eMirrors) that present a large field of view with less image distortion than traditional mirrors and can be integrated with blind spot information and warning systems.

Another important technology, AEB VRU systems, could prevent a third of all heavy-truck-to-pedestrian crashes, according to Euro NCAP. These systems fuse camera and radar data to detect crossing pedestrians, cyclists and scooter riders, and warn the driver or automatically brake the truck. Euro NCAP wants all manufacturers to fit AEB VRU technology but notes that only one truck maker has a system in production.

Scania put out a statement welcoming Euro NCAP’s new system for safety testing of heavy trucks. “We see the Euro NCAP initiative as part of a new and interesting aspect in our development processes,” said Jacob Thärnå, head of sustainable transports at Scania Trucks. “Assessing safety-related functionality in trucks is a lot more complicated task than it is for passenger cars. Heavy trucks are very diverse, and they are made that way for a reason. Euro NCAP’s approach to start on a small scale and learn as they go is a wise decision.”