Remember the fins on the cars from the fifties? How about the push button transmission? Or the Corvairs? Looking at the aerodynamic lines of today’s cars, it is obvious that automobiles have changed drastically. Along with design changes, important safety improvements have also been made, dramatically reducing the number of highway deaths. Vehicle crash testing is a program that has had a major impact on improving the safety of today’s cars.
Technology is now taking this beneficial crash-testing program to another level. Car companies are adding computer-generated crash testing to physical crashes with test dummies. With the aid of computers, engineers can conduct hundreds of virtual crash and durability tests before the actual crash tests take place.
Computer assisted safety testing is an important tool that can provide more design information than would be available if engineers relied solely on actual crash tests. In fact, computerized approaches have increased productivity by nearly fifty percent and cut development time from three or four years to as little as two years in some cases. Just think of all the money computerized crash testing can save in bent fenders and crushed side panels. And what a relief for those crash testing dummies!
