road safety

Planning a family, or already deep in the throes of child-rearing? Then you'll be well aware almost everything in your life needs to be child-proof – including your car. But when most new models these days promise state-of-the-art safety tech, flawless safety ratings and family-friendly cabins, it can be tricky to sift through the jargon and uncover the essentials.

There's little doubt our expectations for new cars are higher than ever. With every passing year, autonomous driving becomes more of a widespread reality, five-star ANCAP ratings are harder to obtain and standard equipment lists grow longer. Put simply: we crave cars that are smarter (and safer) than we are. And manufacturers are answering that craving with a never-ending game of one upmanship.

Volvo is ensuring its cars are prepared for all crash conditions by dropping its vehicles 30 metres from a crane, in an effort to prepare them for extreme collisions. The scenario was used to simulate the results of extreme crashes – such as high-speed, single-vehicle collisions or truck and passenger vehicle collisions – in order to both improve in-car safety systems and help provide training for rescue crews.

Australia's peak automotive safety body ANCAP has officially awarded the 2020 Jeep Gladiator a three-star safety rating, citing "lower than expected" levels of adult occupant and vulnerable road user protection as the reason for the score. Of the maximum five stars a car can receive, ANCAP issued the utility vehicle only three, based on 2019 testing of its SUV sibling, the Jeep Wrangler, as well as supplied technical evidence and in-house evaluation and modelling.