Changes in NCAP rating standards force changes in automotive technology

What kind of car will be the safest in the future?

When it comes to automobile safety, from the perspective of the OEM, the safety of the occupants has always been more of a concern. Therefore, whether it is the vehicle manufacturer or the parts manufacturer, the focus is mostly on the improvement of passive safety technologies such as seat belts and airbags. However, at the "Second Jinheng EURO-NCAP Automobile Safety Technology Seminar" held last week, Andre Seek from the German Federal Institute for Transportation Research (Bast) said that in the future, EURO-NCAP will pay more attention to the integration of active and passive safety technologies when rating vehicles. EURO-NCAP will gradually improve the assessment of active safety technologies of vehicles, such as seat belt alarm systems, speeding systems, speed limit information systems, lane change systems, etc., and will establish an overall scoring framework for autonomous driving in the future. In China, the 2018 version of C-NCAP is also being prepared for release, and it is reported that it also attaches great importance to active safety technologies such as AEB and ESC.

EURO-NCAP 2016-2020 Roadmap

In recent years, the number of deaths caused by road traffic accidents has remained high every year around the world, and most of these traffic accidents are caused by human factors, such as inattention, speeding, drunk driving, drug driving, fatigue driving and other irregular driving behaviors. If drivers encounter these problems while driving in the future, through certain technologies, cars will actively "remind" people in the car, or even take proactive countermeasures, which can greatly reduce the occurrence of traffic accidents and greatly improve the safety of the vehicle itself. Therefore, in the next few years, when conducting automobile safety ratings, EURO-NCAP, C-NCAP, etc. will start from the perspective of preventing traffic accidents, and will pay more attention to the active safety performance of the vehicle when rating.

The implication is that if automakers want their cars to get higher safety ratings and better safety performance in the future, they must integrate active and passive safety technologies during the design and manufacturing process of their cars. In addition to focusing on traditional passive safety technologies such as seat belts and airbags - after all, passive safety technology is the last line of defense for cars - they also need to increase the development of active safety technologies, such as AEB, LKA, SAS, blind spot warnings, seat belt alarms, etc., so that cars can get higher safety ratings. Especially those car companies that plan to enter the European market should pay more attention to the development of active safety technologies and the integration of active and passive safety technologies.

Who will future automotive safety technology primarily protect?

In addition to the technical scoring changes, in the EURO-NCAP 2020 roadmap, the rating system also expands the protection groups of future automotive safety technologies, gradually increasing from traditional in-car occupants to protection of all people involved in traffic accidents, such as the protection of remote passengers, children, pedestrians, and "vulnerable road users" such as people riding electric bikes, bicycles, and tricycles, which will become a focus of inspection in the next few years. Pedestrian protection is also mentioned in the 2018 version of the C-NCAP evaluation concept plan, mainly head shape test and leg shape test, because pedestrian protection mainly protects the head and torso of pedestrians.

2018 C-NCAP Concept

When a car hits a pedestrian, the person will hit the outer panel of the hood, and there are relatively hard objects such as the engine and battery inside the hood. If a person hits it at a relatively high speed, it will cause the hood to deform. If the space between the hood sheet metal and the engine and other hard objects is relatively small, the head will easily come into contact with these hard objects after hitting them, causing serious damage to the person's head. So now there is a technology that when the vehicle senses that a pedestrian has been hit and is about to hit it, the hood will be lifted up to increase the space between the hood and the internal parts to reduce the damage to the person. Another method is to arrange a row of pedestrian protection airbags in front of the windshield. When a person hits it, the airbags will spread out completely, allowing the person to hit the airbags, which will also reduce the degree of pedestrian head injury.

If the OEM equips the new car with one of these two technologies or similar technologies in the future, including providing good solutions in terms of child protection, remote passenger protection, pedestrian protection, etc., the safety level of the car will be greatly improved. According to Gasgoo reporters, some domestic companies are currently developing similar technologies, such as Southeast Auto and Wind Jinheng, which also plan to work in this direction. However, the relevant person in charge said that they may adopt other solutions, not necessarily airbags.

How does car crash testing ensure vehicle safety?

At present, whether it is EURO-NCAP, C-NCAP or the United States' US-NCAP and IIHS crash tests, they are gradually adding crash test scoring items and raising the rating threshold. If car companies want to get high scores in safety ratings or even put a five-star label on their vehicles, they must conduct a large number of tests during the development phase to ensure the safety of the vehicles.

In order to better meet the new requirements of EURO-NCAP and C-NCAP for future automobile collision tests, Wind Group Jinzhou Jinheng Automobile Safety System Co., Ltd. started to build a "super slide" in cooperation with Seattle Safety Company in the United States in 2013. It took four years, and the new slide was officially opened to the outside world during the seminar. According to Gasgoo reporters, the "super slide" has added four functions of quick change, pitch simulation, deflection simulation and side collision simulation on the basis of the multiple functions of the traditional acceleration slide, and can simulate a variety of collision conditions. At the same time, Jinheng also conducted a quick change demonstration, the first pitch simulation experiment demonstration in China, and the world's first DSI side collision simulation test.

Pitch simulation experiment demonstration

In the pitch simulation, unlike the traditional slide that can only simulate one axial acceleration curve, the "super slide" can simulate the pitch phenomenon of the vehicle body during the actual vehicle collision test, which is closer to the motion trajectory of the actual vehicle after the collision, and the movement of the dummy is also closer to the real state.

DSI side impact simulation test

In the side collision simulation test, the traditional approach is to use an acceleration slide or a deceleration slide to simulate the side collision of the vehicle, that is, to cut the vehicle body into sections, simulate the deformation or intrusion, deformation speed, and intrusion speed of each section in the collision test, and simulate the movement of the seat and the relative movement with the side structure of the vehicle, or only simulate the relative movement between the side structure of the body-in-white and the seat to simulate the side collision of the vehicle. The test accuracy is low, the early benchmarking is cumbersome, and many collision conditions cannot be simulated, such as angled side collisions, vertical or angled side column collisions, etc.

The "super slide" can simultaneously meet the vehicle side impact tests under various regulations and standards such as mobile deformable barriers, side column collisions, C-NCAP, EURO-NCAP, and US-NCAP, helping OEMs and parts manufacturers reduce the number of real vehicle collision tests during product development, shortening the product development cycle of automakers and reducing R&D costs. It can be said to be a major technological leap for domestic slide tests. In addition, the slide can also carry out the electric and hybrid vehicle safety test items added to the C-NCAP 2018 version of the concept plan, a relevant person in charge of Jinheng told Gasgoo reporters during the seminar.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.