Safety a major focus for Perodua – Advanced Safety Assist to be available on lower, cheaper models soon

It’s been revealed that Perodua is putting heavy focus on the safety aspect of motoring, and the automaker plans to introduce the Advanced Safety Assist (ASA) suite of safety systems to a wider range of cars.

In a press conference, Perodua president and CEO Datuk Zainal Abidin Ahmad told the media that ASA will be available on lower, cheaper models and variants instead of being an exclusive feature for Advance models, as it is now on the Myvi and Aruz. This is part of the company’s move to offer top levels of safety features to all customers regardless of the model and variant of their choice.

It’s unclear when the big rollout will take place, but the plan is firmly in the pipeline, so watch this space for further developments on the matter. To add to that, Perodua also revealed that it is capable of launching one all-new model (Full Model Change or FMC) and one facelift model (Minor Model Change or MMC) per year. This year saw the launch of the Aruz, and based on the current line-up of cars, the Bezza should be due for an update later this year, perhaps fitted with ASA as well.

To recap, ASA comprises Pre-Collision Warning (PCW), Pre-Collision Braking (PCB), Front Departure Alert (FDA) and Pedal Misoperation Control (PMC), all of which operate through a forward-facing stereo camera on the top of the windscreen, which detects car shapes.

Meanwhile, Perodua’s longstanding partner Daihatsu has conducted a study and found that Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB; or Pre-Collision Braking in Perodua speak) reduces minor collisions by up to a staggering 53%. In the Myvi, AEB works between 4 and 30 km/h, but the more advanced ASA 2.0 (with pedestrian detection) in the Aruz ups the threshold to 80 km/h for vehicles and 50 km/h for pedestrians.

In light of this, Datuk Zainal also urged more motorcyclists to upgrade to Perodua vehicles, simply because of the better safety it offers. Say, if ASA were to be available in the Axia and Bezza, would you consider it over a motorcycle?