Toyota and Mazda star in AEB safety tests

Top-selling Toyota and Mazda models have been found to have advanced pedestrian detection capability in independent testing conducted by the Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP).

The safety authority tested the autonomous emergency braking (AEB) systems of the 10 top-selling vehicles in the Australian market specifically to assess their pedestrian detection ability.

ANCAP tested five vehicles back-to-back to go with the data it already had for the other five.

It gave five vehicles, including the number-one-selling Toyota HiLux pick-up, an ‘advanced’ functionality rating.

Joining the HiLux on the advanced rating were the Toyota Corolla small car, the Toyota RAV4 mid-size SUV, the Mazda CX-5 mid-size SUV and Mazda3 small car.

Two vehicles, the Ford Ranger ute (HiLux’s closest competitor) and the Kia Cerato small car, received an ‘intermediate’ rating.

The Hyundai i30 small car, Mitsubishi Triton ute and Mitsubishi ASX small SUV finished back of the pack with ‘basic’ ratings. Their ability to detect pedestrians at night was cited as an issue.

ANCAP conducted up to 10 tests to assess the ability of the various AEB systems to detect pedestrians both during the day and at night.

Not all vehicles could complete all tests because of the limitations of their respective system.

Each test was worth up to 100 points. Achieving 75 points or better earned an advanced rating, 50 to 75 was worthy of intermediate, while below 50 points was only good enough for basic.

Using crash-test dummies, the tests simulated adults crossing and walking alongside a road and children running onto the road from behind an obstacle.

ANCAP has been testing driver assist systems such as AEB since 2018. AEB is designed to detect a potential collision ahead and pull up beforehand or at least minimise the impact. Cameras and/or radar are usually part of the set-up.

So far in Australia in 2020, 138 pedestrians have been killed. Pedestrian-detecting AEB systems have been shown to reduce injury risk by 28 per cent.

“ANCAP has been encouraging the fitment of AEB systems for many years, and through our influence, vehicle manufacturers have done very well to voluntarily equip their vehicles with AEB technology ahead of regulation,” said ANCAP director of communications and advocacy, Rhianne Robson.

“Technology is improving rapidly, and the differences in performance observed in our testing were to be expected given the staggered introduction of new models and maturation levels of the AEB technology fitted.

“Vehicle safety technology continues to advance at a rapid rate with more sophisticated systems entering the market through new market entrants and model facelifts, and as these vehicles are updated, we expect their performance to improve.

“When purchasing a new or used vehicle, consumers should look for a vehicle equipped with AEB as standard,” she said.