Toyota announces a gut-wrenching innovation: Crash test dummies with intestines. I remember the unappetizing times when crash tests were performed with (dead) pigs, or, even more gross, with human corpses (not for public consumption.) The crash test dummy changed all this. No species developed faster than the anthropomorphic test device, a.k.a. the crash test dummy. Now, it made a big leap forward.
From crude beginnings in the 70s, more and more sophisticated dummies evolved. The dummy had a wife. The dummies had children. Following generations progressed rapidly. As crashes were more and more computer simulated, computer simulated crash test dummies begun to populate the virtual world.
All the while, the crash test dummy species was haunted by a big problem: Lack of internal organs. It’s damage to internal organs that kills you, and those organs could not be easily replicated. Until now.
In the labs of Toyota city a humanoid was created that would make Dr. Frankenstein faint with envy. The new guy is called THUMS 4, as in Total HUman Model for Safety, version 4.
The adult male of average build has detailed models of internal organs, which sets him apart from previous iterations that were all bones and brain. The brain was added in the previous release.
According to Toyota, THUMS 4 will yield 14 times more information than the previous generation of dummies, and represents a quantum leap in the studies of internal injuries. Damages to internal organs account for approximately half of all injuries sustained during automobile collisions.
Soon, THUMS 4 will receive a wife and a larger male cousin. With all internal organs properly in place, a child should not be far off, and with the help of Toyota technicians, even more sophisticated generations will be bred.
Toyota will not keep THUMS 4 to themselves. In fall of 2010, you can place an order with Toyota Technical Development Corporation, a TMC subsidiary, and they’ll sell you one.
No species developed faster than … The Crash Test Dummies. Now, it made a big leap forward.
And [this is what happens when] God [didn’t] Shuffel[ed] His Feet…
Does Toyota use small dummies in Japan, Medium dummies in Europe, and Large dummies in the USA to more accurately represent their typical market?
or, even more gross, with human corpses…
“OK, I’m gonna go check the car… God damnit! This one’s dead, too! Put in another airbag!”
That is nasty, but somehow funny.
The is Prevention is Better than Cure, I think Now a days Air Bag is compulsory in every cars, might be in some of cars there is only one but they giving provision with higher models
Do Adam and Jamie know about this?
When I was doing crash stuff a few years back, Hybrid III and his family were the hot ticket. US standards are still written for Hybrid III.
The US and Europe use the same manikins (they hate to be called dummies). The size distribution of people in Europe is about the same as the US. Only in Japan are there smaller people, and smaller crash manikins.
I once had to take a group of high school students aspiring to be automotive engineers on a tour of Chrysler’s proving grounds. At one point, we stopped in the room full of crash dummies.
There were big ones, small ones, male and female, and children of various sizes. One of the students asked me, “Where do these manikins come from”?
I said, “we close the doors and turn out the lights every night, and the problem seems to take care of itself”. My boss cringed. Yet another reason my career at Chrysler was short.
Bob
There were times at VW when this remark would have gotten you a board seat.
I also remember that the floor in the Chrysler New Yorkers would defoem and completely wrap around the dummy’s foot during the crash. The techs would unbolt the foot at the ankle and throw it out with the car. I asked once if that didn’t create a problem that perhaps we should investigate, and resolve.
My bosses said, in no uncertain terms, that it wasn’t covered by the standards, so we weren’t going to address it. I thought about this for a while, and bought myself a Chevy Caprice.
Yet another reason for my truncated career at Chrysler.
Bob
Saying the truth or uncomfortable facts not always get sympathy, specially when told to the bosses.
Sadly, the boss was right. All big car makers optimize their cars to perform according to the pre-set standards. Woe is the poor vehicle occupant if the car doesn’t play by the rules and crashes differently than prescribed in the standard tests.
“Yet another reason for my truncated career at Chrysler.”
Better a truncated career than a truncated body.
The next iteration will get gut feelings as well and be doing double duty in crash tests and market research.
Well with the number of fatalities pushing 86 in Toyota related crashes I can see the need for this or in other words you would have to be a dummy to drive a Toyota edition.
May we direct your attention to https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/confused-nhtsa-revises-toyota-body-count/#comment-1628592 ?
It doesn’t matter where you direct the attention; the witch hunters are blind to facts.