EuroNCAP are driving the future direction and making the proposals and then the laws follow. You may be technically correct but it is very clear who is setting the agenda and I am not going to stop saying it.
In fact, they are not. From a legal perspective. In the US, it is the NHTSA, in the EU there is UNECE with the EU itself. Other countries have their own regulatory bodies.
In theory, this can lead to different minimum requirements with different regional NCAP's (US, EU, NZ, AU). But they usually stick to one set of requirements.
NCAP is contracted to test minimum requirements as defined by laws. On top of that they have additional criteria defined with several govermental and consumer organisations. This is the five star rating.
The problem is two fold: the test procedure is not rigid enough (they admitted this), and they add requirements that are not mandatory but are strongly dictated by their own 'body of knowledge'. On top of that, all points scored add up.
The added requirements create commercial pressure on the brands to 'comply to NCAP 5 star ratings'. But it is not mandatory.
The solution is:
1.Connect an NCAP test score to a maximum of 3 stars to show compliance to laws only (minimal requirements).
2.Added features can be used to gain extra points/stars, under the condition that compliance is met as defined in 1).
3. Vastly improve test validity.
Yes, the bouton selects your preferred configuration of driver assistance settings with a quick double-press (I believe because the rules require more than a single press to disable).
