Vehicle safety systems that are mandatory in cars

That is why the European Union wants to implement new measures, the latest is the 2019 Vehicle General Safety Regulation which started to be applied in the production in 2022. It introduces a range of mandatory advanced driver assistant systems to improve road safety and establishes the legal framework for the approval of automated and fully driverless vehicles in the EU. The new safety measures will help to better protect passengers, pedestrians and cyclists across the EU, expectedly saving over 25,000 lives and avoid at least 140,000 serious injuries by 2038.

As of 2022, the new measures introducing safety features to assist the driver include:

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  For all road vehicles (i.e. cars, vans, trucks and buses): intelligent speed assistance, reversing detection with camera or sensors, attention warning in case of driver drowsiness or distraction, event data recorders as well as an emergency stop signal.

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  For cars and vans: Additional features such as lane keeping systems and automated braking.

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  For buses and trucks: technologies for better recognising possible blind spots, warnings to prevent collisions with pedestrians or cyclists and tyre pressure monitoring systems.

  The rules will first apply to new vehicle types from today onwards and to all new vehicles from 7 July 2024. Some of the new measures will be expanded to cover different kinds of road vehicles until 2029.

Based on the General Safety Regulation the Commission is planning to adopt from 2022 technical rules for automated and connected vehicles, in particular focusing on automated vehicles replacing the driver on motorways (level 3 automation) and fully driverless vehicles like urban shuttles or robotaxis (level 4 automation). The new rules will align EU legislation with the new UN level rules on level 3 automation and adopt new EU technical legislation for fully driverless vehicles, the first international rules of its kind. The technical rules set out via a delegated and implementing act will establish a comprehensive assessment of safety and maturity of the fully automated vehicles before they are placed on the EU market. They will cover testing procedures, cybersecurity requirements, data recording rules as well as monitoring of safety performance and incident reporting requirements by manufacturers of fully driverless vehicles.

The Commission presented the revised General Safety Regulation in 2018. The rules addressed the need for improving vehicle and road safety, given that studies have shown human error is estimated to play a role in 95% of accidents. The European Parliament and EU Member States subsequently adopted the Regulation in November 2019. The Commission has since adopted a series of related implementing regulations covering the different driver assistant measures introduced by the Regulation.

Nowadays all new car models are equipped with some form of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS). While there is no single definition of ADAS, generally they refer to systems that support the driver in their primary driving task. The term “advanced” refers to the use of sensors to observe the surroundings. These systems can inform or warn the driver, but also take over (part of) vehicle control. The Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) has proposed 6 levels of driving automation (Figure 1). ADAS fall under levels 0-2, while automated driving (AD) refers to levels 3-5. The main difference between ADAS and AD is the role of the driver. While ADAS only support the driver with their driving task, AD can take over the complete driving task for at least part of the trip. Currently, no AD systems have gained EU approval. Some ADAS, on the other hand, have gained approval and will be mandatory in future car models.

Several research institutes and universities around the world are investigating the impact of ADAS on crash severity and frequency based on police reports and insurance claims, and they all show similar results. A recent and comprehensive study below presents the following findings based on some of the main types of ADAS, each representing multiple functionalities:

The infographic below shows police-reported collision rates and insurance claims for vehicles with various ADAS technologies compared against vehicles without such safety features.

Have a safe trip!