AI-powered driver help applied sciences have gotten customary gear, essentially altering how car security is assessed and validated.
The latest recognition of the Mercedes-Benz CLA as Euro NCAP’s Finest Performer of 2025 underscores this shift, because the car combines conventional passive security options with NVIDIA DRIVE AV software program to attain the best general security rating of the yr.
“When Euro NCAP assesses car security, it evaluates each passive and lively techniques — attaining an ideal rating requires a state-of-the-art superior driver help system,” mentioned Ola Källenius, CEO of the Mercedes-Benz Group. “This milestone represents the end result of 5 years of collaboration between Mercedes-Benz and NVIDIA to boost real-world security and ship tangible worth to clients.”
Euro NCAP (European New Automobile Evaluation Programme) has for practically 30 years served as Europe’s unbiased car security authority, backed by European governments, motoring organizations and client teams.
Euro NCAP evaluates autos throughout 4 classes that mirror real-world security. For AI-powered driver help, essentially the most related are the “Weak Highway Consumer” and “Security Help” classes, which assess applied sciences designed to assist stop crashes — together with computerized emergency braking, lane-keeping assist and pace help.
Solely autos attaining five-star rankings with customary gear qualify for “Finest in Class” recognition, with winners decided by weighted scores throughout all classes. In 2025, Euro NCAP examined a file 49 fashions.
Security Comes First: How DRIVE AV Is Constructed for Belief
Security rankings like Euro NCAP are more and more recognizing autos that mix robust passive safety with superior lively security efficiency. As AI turns into central to driving, the benchmark for the “most secure” automotive will more and more be outlined not solely by how nicely a car handles a crash, however how successfully it helps stop one.
The Mercedes-Benz CLA is constructed with NVIDIA DRIVE AV, a dual-stack structure that’s designed to assist automakers ship techniques that aren’t solely clever, however predictable, verifiable and resilient in the true world. The structure pairs an AI-driven end-to-end driving system with a parallel classical security stack to offer redundancy throughout AV sensing, planning and execution.
The CLA can be constructed on the NVIDIA DRIVE Hyperion structure, which contains sensor range and {hardware} redundancy into the car’s general design.
On the coronary heart of this strategy is NVIDIA Halos — a complete security system spanning {hardware}, software program, instruments, growth processes and certification assist. Halos delivers a structured security basis for creating automated driving and different AI capabilities whereas staying anchored to strong guardrails, redundancy and fault tolerance.
Third-party certification and assessments are additionally essential to construct belief:
- TÜV SÜD granted the ISO 21434 Cybersecurity Course of certification to NVIDIA for its automotive system-on-a-chip, platform and software program engineering processes. Moreover, NVIDIA DriveOS 6.0 conforms to ISO 26262 Automotive Security Integrity Stage (ASIL) D requirements.
- TÜV Rheinland carried out an unbiased United Nations Financial Fee for Europe (UNECE) security evaluation of NVIDIA DRIVE AV associated to security necessities for complicated digital techniques, which NVIDIA efficiently accomplished.
NVIDIA lately launched its Alpamayo household of open AI fashions, simulation instruments and datasets — which allows AVs to navigate even uncommon, “long-tail” occasions they haven’t been educated on by breaking the state of affairs down into smaller steps, reasoning by way of a number of attainable actions and finally choosing the most secure one. Utilizing these fashions with the parallel classical security stack within the NVIDIA DRIVE AV dual-stack structure offers a further layer of safety to maintain autos working inside protected boundaries.
Coaching Security By way of Knowledge and Simulation
Trendy AI-driven security techniques be taught from exponentially extra driving eventualities than any human may expertise in a lifetime. NVIDIA’s cloud-to-car growth strategy transforms real-world knowledge into billions of simulated miles utilizing NVIDIA DGX techniques for neural community coaching, the NVIDIA Omniverse and Cosmos platforms for simulation, and NVIDIA DRIVE AGX for in-vehicle computing.
This technique addresses a crucial problem in security validation: coaching AI to navigate uncommon however high-risk edge circumstances which might be too harmful — or too rare — to check reliably in the true world. By producing artificial eventualities that characterize these uncommon conditions, AI techniques can be taught applicable responses throughout growth with out placing individuals in danger.
The CLA’s recognition is greater than a single mannequin incomes a high ranking — it displays a broader shift in what security means within the trendy car, the place trusted crash safety is paired with AI-enabled driver help designed to assist keep away from accidents within the first place.
