NHTSA Sets Meeting on Crash Test Vehicle

June 10, 2016
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced a public meeting to seek stakeholder feedback on a full-size three-dimensional surrogate vehicle being developed to better support the evaluation of advanced crash avoidance technologies.  

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced a public meeting to seek stakeholder feedback on a full-size three-dimensional surrogate vehicle being developed to better support the evaluation of advanced crash avoidance technologies.

NHTSA will hold the public meeting July 13-14, 2016, in East Liberty, Ohio. Each day the meeting will start at 9 a.m. and continue until 5 p.m.

NHTSA, Euro NCAP, Thatcham, and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) have been collaboratively working to develop this surrogate. However, confirmation that it appears as realistic to the sensors used in automotive safety systems requires feedback from industry experts.

To date, multiple iterative efforts have been made to produce a 3D surrogate vehicle that not only emulates a passenger car from any approach angle, but one that can be safely and repeatedly struck by an actual light or heavy vehicle without harm. In Europe, vehicle manufacturers and suppliers were presented with two opportunities to measure the appearance of multiple surrogate designs during similar test events hosted by Thatcham in the UK.

During this two-day meeting, vehicle manufacturers and suppliers will have an opportunity to measure the appearance of the 3D surrogate vehicle from multiple approach angles using vehicle-based sensors (e.g., radar, lidar, cameras, etc.).

Feedback from the first day of testing will be used to make adjustments to the surrogate ahead of the second day's tests. Results from the second testing day will be used to help finalize the surrogate's design. The stated goal is to identify a final design by December 2016.