VMs pass assisted driving gradings

All seven vehicles tested by Thatcham Research and Euro NCAP passed the new Assisted Driving Gradings, meaning they are committed to fitting assisted driving technology and marketing it accurately.

The world-first gradings were introduced last October to support the adoption and clear marketing of assisted driving technology.

Matthew Avery, Thatcham Research’s Chief Research Strategy Officer, said: “Assisted Driving technology must strike the right balance between offering a meaningful level of assistance and ensuring that motorists don’t sit back and let the system do the driving. We’ve seen the dangerous outcomes on roads around the world when drivers become convinced that their role is secondary.”

Of the seven cars tested, BMW’s iX3 was the highest performer with 169 points out of a possible 200. The Ford Mustang Mach-E scored 152 points and Cupra Formentor 144 points. Meanwhile, the Polestar 2 scored 135 points, the Hyundai Ioniq 5 scored 126 points, the Toyota Yaris scored 109 points and Vauxhall Mokka-e achieved 101 points.

Avery said: “All seven cars we’ve just tested are clearly marketed as having ‘driver assistance’ functions, not ‘automated’. These systems are engineered to involve and support the driver in a very cooperative manner. They’re certainly not trying to offer automation, where the driving task can be relinquished to the vehicle, and we strongly believe that’s the right thing to do.”