Features
3 Oct 19

ADAS, telematics, autonomous are the future – Latin NCAP

To prevent car accidents or mitigate the effects of crashes, advanced driver-assisted systems (ADAS), telematics, connectivity, and fully autonomous cars are the waves of the future

ADAS is a key component in vehicle safety improvements today and it will gradually become more common in the cars of the future, according to Alejandro Furas who is the Secretary General of Latin NCAP, the Latin America and Caribbean regional car safety assessment program.  
"In Latin America, these technologies will not make a large impact on the industry for at least 15 years. However, they are a key component in the ever-evolving autonomous car of today," Mr. Furas told Fleet LatAm, adding that telematics is another useful driver monitoring tool on the rise.

“In my opinion, drivers will be increasingly more distracted in the future so we must remember that education is a key component in fleet management,” says Mr. Furas.

It has been proven that a human being today, in 24 hours, receives nearly as much information as a human being 200 years ago received in his or her entire life. As such, Latin NCAP strongly believes that a safe system in the future will be one that relies on cars and roads that are "distracted-driver-proof".

Finally, one technology that many are waiting for with curious eyes is self-driving cars.

“Personally, I believe that autonomous cars will be a safer alternative in the future. However, to have fully efficient autonomous cars, we need reliable artificial intelligence (AI), as well as car-to-car and car-to-road communications [connectivity]," said Furas,

Once we have all this, I feel that we will have a safer system, but it is yet to be proven, he added.

Today & Tomorrow

Today, some car makers call their cars “autopilot” or “autonomous” and this is creating an unrealistic expectation by consumers. OEM’s should use a more realistic name like “assisted driving”. Drivers need to be aware that these technologies are meant to help them drive but not to drive for them.

As for when autonomous car networks will be hitting the roads, the Secretary General does not feel that this will make a real impact on the industry for at least another 10 years, and probably at least 25 years to really take off.

In the meantime, we still have a lot to do to make cars safer. If we sit around and wait for those changes to come, we will see a lot of deaths and injuries in the years to come.

For more on the subject of fleet and vehicle safety in Latin America, download the 4th edition of the Fleet LatAm magazine where you will learn the importance of both Safety and Security for your fleet management strategy.


Following the latest Latin NCAP crash tests (September 2019), Volkswagen Tiguan received 5 stars in both adult and child occupant protection.  (source: Latin NCAP)

Authored by: Daniel Bland