An organisation that provides safety ratings for cars sold in Europe. Its ratings have no legal force but carmakers use them as a selling-point.
From January 2026 new Euro NCAP rules mean no car can receive a full five-star safety score unless certain crucial functions—indicators, windscreen wipers and the like—are controlled by real, physical switches rather than touchscreens. The change reflects growing evidence that touchscreens distract drivers. A 2022 test by Vi Bilägare, a Swedish motoring magazine, found that tasks taking about ten seconds in a car with physical buttons took up to 45 seconds in the worst-performing touchscreen model. A 2024 study by SINTEF, a Norwegian research organisation, found that even the quickest touchscreen task—changing the temperature—meant three and a half seconds of not looking at the road; entering a satnav address took 16 seconds. An analysis published in 2020 by the Transport Research Laboratory, a British organisation, found that touchscreens impaired reaction time more than driving over the legal alcohol limit.
hard, adj.: The quality of your own data; also how it is to believe those of other people.