Safety

Mercedes-Benz is primed to take the hassle and frustration out of finding a car park with the launch of a public self-driving trial in Stuttgart that can autonomously park and retrieve vehicles.The pilot program is the world’s first to receive approval for public Level 4 autonomous parking, and is being conducted by Daimler and Bosch, the former supplying vehicle technology and the latter providing intelligent parking garage infrastructure.Bosch’s parking sensors will monitor the garage and direct the vehicle accordingly, while the technology in the Mercedes-Benz car will translate the commands into driving manoeuvres.According to Daimler, the system works as simply as “drive into the parking garage, get out, and send the car to a parking space just by tapping on a smartphone screen”.The car will then navigate to a predetermined space, where it will sit until summoned back to the same drop-off spot at a later time.The key aim of the trial is to measure the safety and viability of self-parking technologies, with systems able to detect pedestrians and other cars to reliability stop and avoid obstacles.Though the automated valet parking service is restricted to the Mercedes-Benz Museum parking garage in Stuttgart, the trial could pave the way for a wider rollout in future.Daimler head of automated driving Dr Michael Hafner said: “This approval from the Baden-Wuerttemberg authorities sets a precedent for obtaining approval in the future for the parking service in parking garages around the world.“As a pioneer in automated driving, our project paves the way for automated valet parking to go into mass production in the future,” he said.Meanwhile, Bosch member of the board Dr Markus Heyn said Germany continues to be a pioneer for self-driving technology.“This decision by the authorities shows that innovations like automated valet parking are possible in Germany first,” he said.“Driverless driving and parking are important building blocks for tomorrow’s mobility. The automated parking system shows just how far we have already progressed along this development path.”

Mazda is set to recall more than 18,000 vehicles over an engine stalling issue, with the Mazda3, Mazda6 and CX-5 impacted. The brand will recall 1709 units of the all-new Mazda3 (2019), 1693 units of the Mazda6 (2018-2019), and 15,317

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Mercedes-Benz’ new-generation GLE large SUV and its stalwart G-Class off-roader have both been awarded maximum five-star ANCAP ratings.

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Cars are rated from 1 to 5 in terms of safety, with a 5-star rating the best.The stars are awarded under the Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP).ANCAP crash tests cars in specially built facilities in scenarios that are designed to simulate real world situations.The stars indicate the level of safety for occupants and pedestrians in a crash, as well as an indication of a car's ability to avoid a crash altogether through technology fitted.The ANCAP crash test program was established in 1992 with the first test results published in 1993.Vehicles must achieve minimum scores across all physical crash tests for each ANCAP safety rating levelEuro NCAP was established in 1997 and ANCAP began testing and assessing vehicles in accordance with the Euro NCAP protocols in 1999. At this time the star rating system was also introduced.Crash tests dummies costing up to a million dollars each are used to measure the forces and likely injuries a driver, passenger or pedestrian may sustain.Vehicles must achieve minimum scores across all physical crash tests for each ANCAP safety rating level, as well as meet minimum requirements for the inclusion of safety equipment and technologies.In 2008 the inclusion of electronic stability control (ESC) became mandatory before a vehicle could achieve the maximum five stars.Cars built before this date may well have a five-star rating, but may not necessarily be fitted with ESC — so it pays to check.Ratings are on record, in a searchable, online databaseANCAP crash tests new passenger and light commercial vehicles entering the Australian and New Zealand markets at its facility at Huntingwood, NSW, but also accepts crash data from related organisations like Euro NCAP to formulate ratings.ANCAP sources cars itself to avoid any possibility of vehicles being specially prepared.Ratings are on record, in a searchable, online database that stretches back to the first car to receive a five star rating in Australia, the Renault Laguna in 2001.