November 26, 2025 - EuroNCAP 2026 Updates Aim At Real World Safety

This is the Telemetry Transportation Daily for  November 26, 2025, and I'm Sam Abuelsamid, Vice President of Market Research for Telemetry.  

The European New Car Assessment Program, or EuroNCAP, was launched in 1996 to evaluate the safety capabilities of new vehicles and provide a rating system for consumers who are shopping for a vehicle. Like the U.S. NCAP and IIHS Top Safety Pick programs, EuroNCAP periodically updates the evaluation process, raising the bar as most vehicles begin to achieve top ratings under prior systems. EuroNCAP is getting another update for 2026 with a focus on real-world safety performance. 

In addition to the usual suite of crash tests to evaluate occupant protection in a crash, EuroNCAP will look at three other areas: safe driving, crash avoidance, and post-crash safety. To that end, there will be an evaluation of driver monitor systems, including points for advanced driver assist systems, or ADAS, that adjust sensitivity based on the ability to detect driver attentiveness. Systems that can detect impaired driving and stop the car safely if the driver loses consciousness will also get extra credit.

EuroNCAP will also score based on placement, clarity, and ease of use of essential controls, with an emphasis on physical controls. That means automakers that insist on putting everything into a touchscreen interface will probably not get top marks. Other areas for evaluation include the accuracy of functions like speed limit recognition to avoid false positives and improve driver acceptance. New tests designed to better replicate real-world scenarios for systems like automatic emergency braking and lane-keep assistance have the same goal: ensure that they work as intended and are smooth and intuitive so that consumers are less inclined to disable or ignore them.  With so many new vehicles now featuring powered, retracting electric door handles, EuroNCAP wants to make sure they remain functional after a crash so people can get out or be rescued, and EVs have to isolate the battery to minimize fire risk. 

All of these are good, common-sense changes that are unlikely to be implemented by the current Washington administration in the U.S. NCAP, but the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety is putting some of these elements into the Top Safety Pick program. 

Thanks for listening.