Lab-to-road divide: a scoping review of vehicle safety testing limitations

Vehicle safety assessment is crucial before launching vehicles on the market. Despite advancements and rigorous evaluation, a significant 'lab-to-road' gap between standardised test performance and actual on-road crash outcomes critically undermines real-world safety. Existing literature on vehicle safety testing and real-world performance was comprehensively analyzed to reveal that this gap arises from multifaceted and interconnected factors, unveiling critical shortcomings in how safety is currently assessed. These include a predominant tendency to test elements in isolation, the slow adaptation of testing methods to evolving vehicle technologies and road dynamics, and a reliance on test scenarios that are unable to capture complex real-world conditions adequately. Bridging this critical divide is essential for fostering public trust and robustly advancing safer vehicle technologies. This review underscores the urgent need for a paradigm shift towards more holistic, adaptive, and evidence-based safety assessment frameworks to ensure innovations effectively safeguard lives and strategically prioritise future research efforts.