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    • US to add features like blind spot warnings and pedestrian detection to vehicle crash assessment
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    US to add features like blind spot warnings and pedestrian detection to vehicle crash assessment

    Online Niel Posted on

    Tom Krisher
    | Associated Press

    Detroit — The U.S. government’s auto safety ratings will get a major update starting in the 2026 model year, when regulators add new driver-assistance technologies and tests to protect pedestrians.

    The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said Monday it had completed the changes, which were required by Congress under the bipartisan infrastructure law of 2021.

    In addition to the five-star crash test ratings, the agency will add four new technologies, including automatic pedestrian emergency braking, lane-keeping assist, blind-spot warning and intervention if the driver tries to steer into a vehicle in a blind spot.

    The new rule also strengthens test procedures and performance standards for technology that is already included in the assessments, such as automatic emergency braking.

    Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, whose department includes NHTSA, said the previous ratings, which went into effect in 1978, helped the industry meet higher safety standards.

    The new requirements ensure that “the assessment of these cars includes not only the safety of people inside the vehicles during a crash, but also how a vehicle’s design could prevent a crash or make it less fatal to someone outside the vehicle,” a Buttigieg said. in an interview with The Associated Press.

    The agency said the five-star crash test ratings that most vehicles now get won’t change under the new system. But consumers would also see green checks if the vehicles they’re shopping for have safety features and can be sure they meet standards set by the government, Buttigieg said.

    At first, the features will receive a pass or fail grade, but later they will receive scores so buyers can compare vehicles, he said.

    The standards, which will begin appearing on vehicle window stickers in August, should motivate automakers to speed up rollout of the features, he said. Automakers already use crash test ratings to compete for customers, and Buttigieg expects that to happen with the new features as well.

    To get credit for having the features, automakers must make the safety devices standard equipment on their vehicles, Buttigieg said.

    “Hopefully this will move the market in that direction, that consumers will have another reason to be aware that these features exist and then question whether the car they’re considering buying has those features,” he said.

    The new standards will also strengthen testing procedures for safety features that are already included, such as automatic emergency braking, the agency said. Automatic emergency braking will have to meet strict requirements and be standard equipment on all passenger vehicles by 2029.

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