Three of Five Vehicles Failed DVSA Emergency Braking Checks Ahead of an Undated Mandate

• DVSA put the emergency braking systems of five popular vehicles through five tests from UN Regulation No. 152, and three of the five failed at least one.
• The MG HS PHEV failed the stationary vehicle, pedestrian and failure detection tests, while the Ford Kuga PHEV and Ford Ranger failed the failure detection and deactivation tests.
• The government says it will require emergency braking on new mass-produced vehicles, but the clock starts only when legislation enters into force, and no date has been set.

Three Vehicles Failed a Test Standard Great Britain Has Yet to Require

The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency tested the advanced emergency braking system on five popular vehicles: the Hyundai Tucson, the MG HS PHEV, the Vauxhall Astra Hybrid, the Ford Kuga PHEV and the Ford Ranger. Each faced the same five tests from UN Regulation No. 152. The Tucson and the Astra Hybrid passed all five. The MG HS, the Kuga and the Ranger did not.

Across the five vehicles that makes 25 individual tests, and seven of them ended in a fail: three for the MG HS, two for the Kuga and two for the Ranger. That is 28 percent. Only the MG HS failed a test of braking against a target, with a stationary vehicle and with a pedestrian. The Kuga and the Ranger passed all three braking tests and failed the failure detection and deactivation checks.

DVSA states the position in one sentence: “The UK is considering whether to mandate UN Regulation No. 152.” The Department for Transport said on 16 July that it will make emergency braking compulsory on new mass-produced vehicles, but only from dates counted from the day the legislation enters into force, and its response gives no such day. As of 29 October no statutory instrument for the mandate has been made. Until that day arrives, UN Regulation No. 152 is not a requirement every new car in Great Britain must meet.

What DVSA Tested and How It Chose the Vehicles

The findings sit in section 7 of the market surveillance unit’s report on its 2025 programme, released on 21 October 2026. The agency set out to check whether the advanced emergency braking system on passenger vehicles and light goods vehicles was operating correctly and followed AEBS regulations.

The agency picked the five vehicles on market popularity, the diversity of vehicle and engine types and the range of driver assistance functions. It chose them so that every requirement in UN Regulation No. 152 could be tested. Five vehicles make a small sample, not a market survey. Each result describes one vehicle of that model, so it cannot say how every Kuga, Ranger or MG HS on the road would score.

The five tests split into two kinds. Three are warning and activation tests against a target: section 6.4 with a stationary vehicle, section 6.5 with a moving vehicle and section 6.6 with a pedestrian. Two are system checks: section 6.8, the failure detection test, and section 6.9, the deactivation test, which DVSA describes as a functional test. The report does not spell out what the last two involve. Their names point to the system’s handling of its own faults and its switch-off function, and both sit apart from braking for an obstacle.

DVSA prepared each vehicle before testing. It ran vehicle checks to confirm each one was fit for test, ran diagnostic scans to confirm the emergency braking parameters showed no fault codes, and loaded each vehicle with only the required test equipment and nothing extra in the cabin or payload area.

Which Vehicles Passed and Which Failed

The Hyundai Tucson passed the stationary vehicle, moving vehicle, pedestrian, failure detection and deactivation tests. So did the Vauxhall Astra Hybrid. Neither drew a single fail.

The MG HS PHEV drew the worst result on the list: it failed section 6.4, the stationary vehicle target, section 6.6, the pedestrian target, and section 6.8, failure detection. It passed the moving vehicle test and the deactivation test. Those two are the only braking-test fails among the five vehicles.

The Ford Kuga PHEV and the Ford Ranger share an identical pattern. Both passed the stationary vehicle, moving vehicle and pedestrian tests, and both failed failure detection and deactivation. A reader who owns either should keep the distinction clear: the published results do not say these two vehicles failed to brake.

After the tests DVSA informed all five manufacturers of the findings and advised them to take the results into account in future implementation of the system so that it meets the relevant standards. The published results name no recall and no penalty, and they carry no response from any maker. The agency says it will keep testing driver assistance systems in 2026 on passenger vehicles, light goods vehicles and heavy goods vehicles.

What the Government Says It Will Require, and When

The Department for Transport consulted from 7 January to 11 May 2026 on requiring manufacturers who seek GB type approval for mass-produced vehicles to fit 18 safety technologies. Emergency braking for vehicles, for pedestrians and for cyclists are three of the 18. The consultation drew 231 responses, 139 from individuals and 92 from organisations. Among respondents, 74.2 percent of 217 backed mandating emergency braking for vehicles, 73.7 percent of 217 backed it for pedestrians and 70.4 percent of 216 backed it for cyclists. Opposition ran from 19.3 percent for vehicles to 22.7 percent for cyclists. DfT says the responses were self-selected and should not be treated as representative of the wider population.

On 16 July 2026 the department published its decision: the government will proceed with the package of 18 technologies, with revised implementation dates. Those dates all run from the entry into force of legislation that the response still calls proposed. New vehicle types must comply 12 months after entry into force, up from the 6 months first proposed. New registrations of complete vehicles follow at 24 months, and new registrations of completed vehicles at 36 months.

An illustration shows how long the runway is. If the legislation took effect on 1 January 2028, a date picked only for the arithmetic and not a government date, new vehicle types would need to comply from 1 January 2029, new registrations of complete vehicles from 1 January 2030 and completed vehicles from 1 January 2031. Manufacturers and trade bodies told DfT some of the lead times were too short. The department adds that large quantities of vehicles already comply ahead of the deadlines, so the longer wait has limited impact on the safety benefit. The department has yet to decide whether to allow a limited end-of-series sell-off of remaining non-compliant stock, so a new car sold after the dates pass could still lack the technology.

The reason behind the whole exercise is casualties. DfT puts the cost of road collisions at more than £40 billion each year. In 2024 car occupants accounted for 43 percent of road deaths and 55 percent of all casualties.

What the Results Mean When You Buy or Own One

Great Britain does not currently mandate the European Union’s General Safety Regulation amendments, which add safety technology requirements for new vehicles sold in the EU. They came into force after the UK left the EU, and they apply in Northern Ireland under the Windsor Framework. One stated aim of the DfT package is to bring GB closer to Northern Ireland and avoid differing vehicle specifications and the costs that follow for consumers. For a buyer in Great Britain the practical point is that UN Regulation No. 152 is not yet mandated, so the car on the forecourt carries whatever its maker chose to fit.

The DVSA results show why a floor with a test behind it counts. A system can be fitted and still miss a pedestrian or fail a system check. Fitting is the first step and passing the test is the second. Every system also has limits in rain, low light and glare, which what automatic emergency braking can miss sets out.

Respondents to the DfT consultation raised the in-use side as well. Type approval confirms compliance only when a vehicle enters the market, and systems could later fail or be disabled without adequate checks. Many respondents named the MOT as the most suitable place to verify that the systems still work. DfT has not committed to that. It says it will keep monitoring how the technologies perform and notes that any expansion of the annual MOT test would add cost for the vehicle user. Respondents also flagged repair costs where specialist calibration, software support or manufacturer-controlled parts are involved, and asked for independent garages to get fair access to the tools and data they need.

False alerts are the other worry. Many respondents said false activations or intrusive warnings could erode driver confidence and lead some drivers to switch systems off, a complaint already familiar to anyone whose new car keeps showing the wrong speed limit. That worry sits mostly with intelligent speed assistance, another of the 18 technologies, and DfT says the real-world performance concerns raised will be considered in finalising the detailed requirements.

What to Do if Your Emergency Braking Shows a Fault

Nothing in the DVSA report tells owners of the five models to stop using them, and the report announces no recall.

Read the handbook section on the emergency braking system for your own vehicle. It sets out how the system warns of a fault and how to switch it off. If a warning light or message appears that the handbook links to the braking assistance system, book it in with a franchised dealer or a garage that can read and recalibrate the system, and say plainly that the warning concerns the emergency braking. Respondents told DfT that independent repairers need fair access to diagnostic and calibration data, so ask a garage up front whether it can calibrate the system.

Ask the dealer about recalls on your model when you buy a used vehicle or book a service. Many modern cars also carry the emergency braking camera behind the windscreen, so a glass replacement can leave the system needing recalibration, a job that adds to the bill, as the breakdown of windscreen recalibration costs shows.

Buyers comparing models can ask the dealer whether the vehicle’s emergency braking meets UN Regulation No. 152 and what the maker has said about it. DfT’s July response sets the lead times. The entry into force date is the one figure still missing.

Want more car content? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list for the best automotive news and analysis on the internet.

If you enjoyed this article, be sure to follow us on Microsoft Start.