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EuroNCAP

Michel van Ratingen, Euro NCAP secretary-general

Most companies have a safety strategy for zero-collisions in mind. I think by 2018 that will probably be in the last stages of being realised. There’s a lot of electronics coming on-board, pre-crash sensing or crash avoidance technologies. If you see how quickly that’s developing and project that into 2018, you’ll see a lot more of that on vehicles. That will affect the whole traffic situation. Vehicles will still have to some sort of passive protection level in any case.

The generation of different fuel systems will have an effect on crash safety. Hydrogen and hybrid vehicles that use different energy sources. They could shift the centre of gravity. With a lot more batteries on board there may be other safety issues we’ll have to consider.

They also have clear opportunities as far as how the whole cockpit is developed.

The interaction between the knee and the knee bolster and the dashboard is an issue in the current generation of vehicles. If you go into steer by wire, this may disappear completely. There are huge opportunities as we go towards.

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