The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) set the ball rolling with testing passenger car safety standards in 1979 with its New Car Assessment Program (NCAP), a model that Europe adopted and continues to develop. Yet, while testing by Euro NCAP has driven down the number of fatal vehicle collisions on the Continent, U.S. figures remain stubbornly high despite the implementation of many more safety features in modern vehicles. The reason may lie with the NHTSA’s role as a regulator whose decisions have to pass through the U.S. Congress, Dr. Michiel van Ratingen, Euro NCAP’s secretary general, said in an interview with WardsAuto. “They are hamstrung by being a government regulatory body and have any decisions pass through Congress, with the ensuing political divisions along party lines,” said van Ratingen in an interview with WardsAuto after his presentation of Euro NCAP 2026 protocols to media outside Brussels. “They are also forced to follow certain rules in terms of innovation of their protocols with the test procedure; nothing bad, I would say, but it becomes part of the political system, and that’s where things can go wrong,” he added. Passive vehicle protection measures for vulnerable road users, such as crumple zones on car hoods to protect against head injuries, are areas where the U.S. has fallen behind, said Matthew Avery, Euro NCAP director of strategic development. “Passive safety for vehicles in the U.S. is well below our standards, especially when it comes to passive pedestrian protection,” said Avery. “Unfortunately, until they can get a regime that wants to improve this, then their casualties will continue to go up, and they have gone up in the U.S.,” he added. The four new areas that Euro NCAP will introduce to its testing from 2026 include a greater focus on physical buttons in