42
votes
This is the first crash test dummy modelled on the female body. Will it make cars safer for women?
Link information
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- Title
- Researchers reveal first crash test dummy based on female body
- Published
- Sep 21 2023
- Word count
- 566 words
It's wonderful yet infuriating that it took until 2023 for there to be a female crash test dummy. I'm glad future generations will be safer than mine!
They almost certainly will. This article was posted to Tildes a few years ago with no discussion, but highlights well a major problem with a lot of engineering: It's fine tuned to the current test standards. Which makes sense, that's what engineers do: Design a thing to do a requirement with the lowest material cost. Every safety feature that doesn't improve on standardized test performance is a safety feature that doesn't help with marketing and makes other engineering goals like hitting emission targets harder.
Goodhart's law is a problem with pretty much any requirement-style regulations, not just in engineering. People care about "passing the test", which sometimes leads to even worse products
True, but engineers in particular have their entire careers based around "do more with less," which is fundamentally a fantastic thing that enables many other things.
It just has its downsides, especially in a for-profit world. Engineers left to their own devices with unlimited budgets can build incredible, nearly indestructible stuff.
I’m definitely interested in the results, but I’m not going to be surprised if the outcome doesn’t change the differential between genders. We may end up getting higher safety standards though.
I think it definitely will change a lot of things. For one thing, women have breasts and those cause seatbelts to not sit in the place where they're supposed to. I would love to see crash test dummies for all genders and sizes, height and weight. Having a female dummy is a great start, but it's going to take a lot more work to make cars safer for everyone, not just those who fit the model's dimensions.
It's sad that it took to 2023 to get a female dummy when cars have been around for over 100 years and crash test safety has been around for over 50 years.
I'm curious where on the body they decided to put the airbags...