Hidden dangers? Why some brands are 'not happy' about how easy it is to score five stars with ANCAP

If you’ve been bothered by a ‘new’ feature in a car that’s supposed to make life easier but doesn’t - at least not for you - then don’t worry, you’re not the only one.

You know the ones, features designed for convenience or safety that sound good on paper, but become annoying in the real world day-to-day and cause you to deactivate them.

It’s safety features that can be the most frustrating, especially if they interfere with your control of the car. So should safety features that annoy you enough to make you turn it off still count towards a car scoring five stars with ANCAP?

Motoring journalists experience and hear about poorly tuned or even dangerous features like this on occasion. Two notable examples from 2023 are the active lane assist in the Chery Omoda 5 and Kia/Hyundai’s speed limit warning chimes.

The Omoda 5’s lane-keeping, was noted by numerous Australian reviews as being dangerously overzealous, almost jolting the steering wheel out of the driver’s hands to make misguided attempts to keep the car in its lane.

Chery said it addressed the issue, though frustrations remain with the brand’s advanced driver assist systems.

The Chery Omoda 5 scored five stars with ANCAP.

The Kia Seltos and Hyundai Palisade’s speed limit alert, constituted a beeping noise that CarsGuide Managing Editor opined as being too overbearing and not suited to the real world, and was met with much agreement from readers.

The system defaults to ‘on’ each time the car is started, and beeps at the driver every time the limit is passed by even 1km/h. The car’s sign detection would sometimes misread variable limits like school zone signs and chime in at 58km/h in a 60km/h zone that’s sometimes 40km/h.

Manager for Field Validation of Driver Assistance Systems at Mercedes-Benz Jochen Haab said it’s frustrating standardised tests like those used by ANCAP can still allow cars with dangerous or annoying systems to score well.

“Now, of course we're glad [Euro] NCAP is around, and of course our goal is to get five stars,” Haab told CarsGuide at Mercedes-Benz’s Intelligent Drive Insight event in Melbourne.

“But…no, we're not happy that every car can get five stars, because then you don't need NCAP. No matter what country they're in.”

While using the star rating system to differentiate between rival models is less advantageous, Haab said the constant renewing of testing protocols means consumers can at least be comfortable knowing a five-star car in 2024 will be safer than a five-star car from 2014.

“The good thing is - to a certain level of NCAP and they change every two years as you might know. I think it's the same in Australia. Okay, so there's a new protocol for 2024-certified cars. There will be a new one for 2026.

“And a car that has to meet the five-star protocol in ‘24 will have to be able to avoid a lot more [collisions or danger] than one with a ‘21-’22 protocol. But cars on the road having five stars will keep those five stars unless they have a facelift or new model range.

“So over time it differentiates again, and when I say it’s ambivalent - of course I'm happy if cars get safer.”

Haab said the prolific use of the five-star rating, while a good sign that cars are getting safer, means it’s harder to differentiate between cars that have ticked all the boxes at a pass level versus those that go above and beyond.

“And many cars getting five stars no matter what protocol over time is a sign that cars get safer, and Mercedes has a big interest in traffic getting safer in the first place. Of course, it doesn't differentiate us as much anymore," said Haab.

“That's why we focus so much on non-standardized tests, on beyond NCAP, on beyond certification tests and looking at real life and making things robust.”

What Haab means is Mercedes’ safety testing program takes myriad variables into account when calibrating elements like obstacle detection in its advanced safety systems, something he doesn’t think regulatory bodies like NCAP in Europe test closely enough.

“It doesn't help you if your system only - and believe me there's a lot of manufacturers - brakes for kids with black hair, black top and marine blue jeans, not even these jeans,” he said gesturing to his own dark blue jeans.

“That's not the Mercedes way, we also brake for kids with red shirts, and helmets on, and blonde hair and brown faces, or whatever. 

“So that's the way we go, and that's the way we test and that's the way we develop. 

“That's the downside of NCAP or any standardisation. It can make people focus just on that test. And then they meet that test and they get the approval. Whereas we say ‘yeah, we’ve got to meet the test’, of course, but that's only half the story.”

Haab said it’s not all system calibration, however, with some of his gripes relating to requirements for safety system alerts - speed limit warnings being a key one.

In particular, Haab has an issue with systems like the Kia/Hyundai speed warning that doesn’t take into account the real world, and cause users to turn them off.

He said the systems should be in place, chiming or flashing at a driver for rolling a couple of kilometres an hour over the limit on a downhill slope isn’t helpful on the road - even though it’s required by regulations.

“Sometimes that's not really real life, but you gotta do it. Lane keeping, same thing. We think NCAP wants a little bit too much, or speed limit detection, same thing," said Haab.

“Global safety regulation demands newer cars to warn for just 1km/h above the limit. What happens? People turn it off. They gotta turn it off every time you get in the car, but they turn it off. And then your benefit is gone. 

“If they put a tolerance of 3km/h or 5km/h, people would say ‘okay, if I'm going 5km/h faster or 10km/h, it makes sense to give me that warning - mandatory, I can't turn it off’. 

“But not one that's a normal tolerance going uphill and downhill. And that makes it ridiculous. 

“So you always have to look at what makes sense. Again, it's the car but it's also the driver,” he said.