Toyota's new hydrogen-powered Mirai sedan has been awarded the maximum 5 star safety rating from independent vehicle safety authority, ANCAP. The Subaru Outback has also scored 5 stars with record scores.
Following release into the Australian and New Zealand markets earlier this year, the full suite of independent safety tests on the Toyota Mirai and Subaru Outback are now complete. Both vehicles achieved the top star rating against the latest 2020-2022 criteria, with the Subaru Outback achieving the highest scores to date across three of the four key assessment areas.
"The Subaru Outback has comprehensively impressed, achieving the highest scores we've seen so far when testing to our current protocols," said ANCAP Chief Executive Officer, Carla Hoorweg.
"The Outback scored 91% for Child Occupant Protection, 84% for Vulnerable Road User Protection and a very high score of 96% for Safety Assist – out-performing its closest rival in this assessment area by 7%."
Maximum points were scored by the Outback in lane keep assist (LKA) and emergency lane keeping (ELK) test scenarios, and close to full points in the autonomous emergency braking (AEB) car-to-car scenarios. Maximum points were scored for its protection of pedestrians in upper and lower leg impacts. It also scored full points for its ability to actively avoid forward collisions with pedestrians through autonomous braking.
A driver monitoring system is fitted as standard – one of the first production cars to directly monitor the driver's state of alertness through eye movement, as well as indirectly monitoring through steering inputs. This innovative technology is expected to become more mainstream in the coming years through ANCAP encouragement. The Outback is fitted with an AEB Backover system designed to prevent reversing collisions with pedestrians, unfortunately performance in ANCAP test scenarios was Poor with ANCAP encouraging functionality improvements in future updates.
The Mirai's score for Vulnerable Road User Protection closely follows that of the Outback, offering the second highest score to date (80%). Extra attention was also paid to the crash and post-crash safety of the hydrogen-powered Mirai, with assessments revealing this fuel type had no effect on the Mirai's inherent safety – helping to build consumer confidence.
"The results achieved by the Toyota Mirai are to be commended, showing safety and environmental benefits can and should go hand-in-hand," Ms Hoorweg said.
The Mirai is fitted with an active bonnet to provide improved protection for pedestrians. Multi-collision braking is also fitted as standard – with the vehicle automatically applying the brakes after a collision to help prevent secondary impacts.
"The safety specification of vehicles entering the market today has clearly evolved to take into account not only the physical protection offered by a vehicle if it crashes, but also the ability to actively avoid a crash or serious outcome for those outside the vehicle."
"This balanced approach to passive and active safety that we're seeing from manufacturers is very important as we move further towards Assisted, and eventually Automated Driving," said Ms Hoorweg.
Full details on the safety performance of the Subaru Outback and Toyota Mirai can be viewed at: https://www.ancap.com.au/safety-ratings