Originally Posted By: Vikas
Being an engineer, I can only say this:-
There is no way in the hade any of these tests are going to be reproducible to any lengths whatsoever. Imagine a single degree difference in the approach of the vehicle and the results would be completely different. If the car approaches the wall at 89.5 degree instead of 90 degree, you would get completely different collision dynamics. I do not believe the contraption which conducts this crashes has the ability to keep the vehicle approach to the wall perfectly identical in each of its run.
- Vikas
Looks like they have various markings on the vehicle and on the stationary object and then a camera that's probably capable of detecting if it was hit at the right angle. Just wondering how many cars they had to destroy before the got the angle right.
Still, what's the likelihood that when you crash, you'll do it at exactly 90 degrees and at exactly this amount of overlap? Another words, how representative are these tests (and test results) of real life situations? And we did have this discussion regarding this small overlap test before, so I'll leave it at that.
In the end, you can build a car to ace any test. The question is: what is the cost to the end customer and what is the benefit? And who benefits if a car does not get a perfect score?