No driver wants to get into a car accident, but for the crash test dummies at the all-new Vehicle Safety Center in Ingolstadt, Germany, car crashes will be a way of life. Audi recently opened up a brand new state of the art crash test facility that will make sure they keep their top tier crash rating reputation. They currently hold top marks from both the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, and that’s no mean feat. The facility’s cost? A cool 100 million euros. Audi doesn’t mess around when it comes to their safety record.
Bigger and Better: More Options for More Complex Crashes
Car crashes don’t always follow the same formula, so it was important to Audi to build a facility that can simulate crashes of all types. The facility has the traditional opposing run-up track for head on collisions thats over 800 feet in length, but they didn’t stop there. The facility is incredibly adaptable, with a 100 ton crash block that can be adjusted to accommodate many different types of crash scenarios. Multiple lanes will be used to set up crashes from different angles including right angle and t-bone crashes.
Another cool feature of the facility is something called a “flying floor.” This allows the car to be hurtled along sideways to simulate sliding crashes like those that often happen during inclement weather.
The Best Dummy For the Job: Newest Crash Testing Technology
In addition to seeing how well the cars physically hold up during all types of impacts, it is crucial to see how the passengers are impacted by the crash as well. Audi’s new facility has over 60 high tech crash test dummies available. The sizes of these dummies range from as small as an 18-month-old toddler to a 225 lb adult. The variety ensures the best outcome for passengers of all shapes and sizes, and the high tech nature of these dummies—some of which have well over a hundred sensors apiece—give extensive data about how a fragile human passenger would react to a real collision.
Digital Crash Testing Can Supplement the Real Thing
The dummies aren’t the only high tech pieces behind the scenes at Audi. Before an Audi model even enters the prototype stage, it has already been extensively crash tested in thousands of digital simulations. These simulations—accurate though they may be—can’t replace seeing how the real thing will react in as close to a real world situation as possible. Now that Audi has built their new facility they can take even more complicated digital scenarios and bring them to life in the safety of their crash test facility. Which means that your new Audi will be safer for everyone on the road, and since it’s an Audi, it will look good doing it too.
For more information about Audi’s new crash test facility, their press release has all of the details.
