Euro NCAP Safety Standards: Less Screens For More Stars

Touchscreens used to be a feature that was in vehicles in the top-tier segment. Now we see scooters under 1 lakh which also have touchscreens. The latest update is, European safety standards are saying buttons are mandatory for a 5-star rating.

Physical Buttons work with muscle memory, allowing the driver to keep their eyes on the road whereas touchscreens require the driver’s attention to leave the sight of the road to be able to see what is being touched on the screen, increasing the risk of accidents and proving to be inconvenient to use.

Matthew Avery, director of strategic development at Euro NCAP, stated that “The overuse of touchscreens is an industry-wide problem, with almost every vehicle-maker moving key controls onto central touchscreens, obliging drivers to take their eyes off the road and raising the risk of distraction crashes.”

The Euro NCAP is a safety assessment organization which is considering setting new guidelines to address the growing concern around the overuse of touchscreens in car and bike manufacturers.

The economies of touchscreens have changed so much that it is cheaper for manufacturers to design and use touchscreens in vehicles now then it is for them to use physical buttons and dials. This has allowed manufacturers to be able to offer technology features that have helped improve sales.

Modern car manufacturers have started to implement the controls of feature like hazard lights, turn signals, headlights and more driving features into touchscreens making the driving experience unsafe. To cater to this, Euro NCAP aims at including touchscreen restrictions on its new car assessment programs.

Although the Euro NCAP rating is not mandatory, brands like Tesla, Volvo, Volkswagen and BMW use Euro NCAP’s safety ratings to improve their own standards of safety to market their vehicles as safer choices for consumers. Any decrease in test scores could result in a lower safety rating.