Consumer Reports (CR), the independent, nonprofit, and nonpartisan member organization, welcomes the opportunity to provide comments to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) on the proposed update to the New Car Assessment Program (NCAP) to incorporate rear automatic braking (RAB) systems with pedestrian avoidance capability into the program’s recommended advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) technologies. CR strongly supports expanding the program to include vehicle features designed to prevent backing crashes, as backover incidents remain a preventable hazard.
This proposal also aligns with the stated mid-term goals of the 10-year roadmap published by the agency alongside critical updates to NCAP at the end of 2024. This included new testing criteria for technologies like pedestrian automatic emergency braking, lane keeping assist, and blind spot systems. CR applauded those updates and recognized them as the most significant step forward for the five-star safety ratings program since its creation. Moving forward with the phase-in of backing safety features is a necessary continuation of this progress, particularly given that modern vehicle design trends for large SUVs and pickups can create visual blind spots that make it difficult for drivers to spot and avoid pedestrians and other road users. Pedestrian fatalities have, historically speaking, been on the rise in the U.S. According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), pedestrian deaths increased 72% between 2009 and 2024; in 2024, over 7,000 people were killed making it one of the deadliest years on record for pedestrians.
To read full comments, click here.