The first member of Land Rover’s Discovery series, Sport, has got a five star safety rating from Euro NCAP, which speaks volumes about the high quality standards of the model. Land Rover Discovery Sport was showcased in September 2014 and is loaded with a wide range of top-class safety features, including a pedestrian airbag and Autonomous Emergency Braking System. While the pedestrian airbag deploys itself from the upper-rear surface of the bonnet on detecting impact and the AEBS utilises a digital camera to detect objects that could possibly collide, which is followed by audio warning and subsequent application of brakes.
Director of Land Rover programmes, Murray Dietsch, was delighted at this development and spoke about the hard work put in to facilitate the achievement. "The vehicle safety team worked tirelessly to ensure that the Discovery Sport delivered levels of safety never before seen in the small SUV segment. We have introduced some cutting edge safety technologies such as the all-new pedestrian airbag and an innovative Autonomous Emergency Braking system, in addition to our tried-and-tested Land Rover safety systems. All of our products are tested to stringent in-house safety standards that go significantly beyond the legal and consumer testing standards. As a family vehicle, safety was really a key motivator when designing this car. We are proud to have made no compromises on this," he said.
In many ways, safety is the USP of the Discovery Sport, which is constant across all variants. Right from the seating positions, which are assessed to attain top class occupant protection, to the third rows that get retractor pretensioners, the Discovery Spot is safety personified. There are several other safety features in this model, such as Dynamic Stability Control, Roll Stability Control, Lane Departure Warning, Reverse Traffic Detection and Seatbelt Reminders. Another strong point of this car is the high-strength body shell with a roof that is capable of supporting more than four-and-a-half times of the vehicle’s weight.
