Among an American fleet of automobiles that’s getting safer all the time, Acura is touting its family of cars as being the safest of them all. Honda’s luxury brand today announced that it had achieved the distinction of being the only automaker to receive the top crashworthiness ratings across its entire current lineup from both the National Highway Traffic Safety Association’s New Car Assessment Program and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety’s Top Safety Pick program.
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Achieving this feat means all of the vehicles manufactured by Acura had to receive a five-star safety rating from NHTSA and the Top Safety Pick Plus designation from IIHS. The automaker noted that this is the second time it has done so, having earned the highest-possible rating in both organizations’ crashworthiness programs for all models in 2009. These latest accolades apply to all 2016 models except the TLX sedan, of which only the 2015 version has been tested.
“At Acura, safety has been a part of our engineering culture and DNA since the inception of the brand nearly 30 years ago, something affirmed by these industry-leading safety ratings,” Jon Ikeda, Acura vice president and general manager, said in a statement.
Acura’s milestones in advanced-safety technologies have included the introduction of autonomous emergency braking and its Collision Mitigation Braking System to the 2006 RL sedan. That’s in addition to the AcuraWatch suite of safety features, which includes front collision warning, lane departure warning and a backup camera. The brand’s safety advancements have earned it a rating of superior from IIHS for front crash prevention across its lineup.
“Looking ahead, our research in advanced automated driving technology has the potential to help realize our dream of a collision-free mobile society, perhaps within the next few decades,” said Honda engineer Chuck Thomas.
