AUDI AG recently built the auto industry’s fastest supercomputer to advance safety standards. Crucial in optimizing car safety, the new system is based on ESI Group’s PAM-CRASH 2G simulation software and an HP Cluster Platform 3000BL system, providing 15.36 teraflop/s of computing performance for crash simulation models of Audi. The supercomputer implementation places the leading […]

The University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI) was approved for Phase II funding by the U.S. Department of Transportation to test technologies that help passenger car and commercial truck drivers avoid crashes.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration are conducting the initiative, funded as part of the […]

The Series 3713 triaxial DC response accelerometers from PCB Piezotronics (PCB®) are designed for a variety of NVH and vehicle durability measurements in automotive and off-highway applications. For example, these accelerometers can be used for brake deceleration compliance certification; vehicle radiator and air cooler durability testing; roll stiffness/static rollover threshold tests; NVH testing; and […]

SAE International is looking for experts in a couple of areas:

FlexRay. J2813—”FlexRay for Vehicle Applicatons” Task Force is looking for experts to help draft a document that will define the physical layer and portions of the data link layer. It will also address how these are to be tested. Contact Debbie Brooks, brook@sae.org.
Restraint systems. Experts […]

Dassault Systèmes has released the Abaqus BioRID II dummy model for use with SIMULA. This model will be used by the automotive engineers during the design phase of seats and head restraints to assess and reduce the risk of neck injuries resulting from rear-end vehicle collisions.
The new Abaqus BioRID II has been developed and validated […]

On February 28, the Swedish government approved a request for special permission to drive on public roadways with fatigued drivers. This decision means that Volvo Trucks’ work with a safety system that alerts tired drivers can enter the final phase. Fatigue and inattentiveness, as well as alcohol, are the most common causes of traffic accidents.
Research […]

India’s Business Standard reports that Underwriters Laboratories (UL) has selected Bangalore to be its worldwide testing center. The Bangalore lab has been operating for ten years and does safety testing for approximately 1,200 Indian companies, including some in the automotive industry.
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SAE International is seeking experts to review standards that deal with inflatable restraints. If you’re interested, please contact SAE Standards Specialist Nikki Ameredes at nameredes@sae.org. The standards include several test standards:

J1630, Driver or Passenger Airbag Module Deployment Test Procedure. This SAE Recommended Practice describes a method to be used for the static […]

The Baltimore Sun reports:
Researchers hope to develop safer restraints by using a better crash-test dummy - one that includes a simulated child abdomen.
For more than a decade, it has been clear that the abdomen is the second most commonly injured body area in seat-belted youngsters, after the head. With the abdominal insert, safety engineers […]

PCB Piezotroncs’ Model 106M160 is a high-intensity ICP acoustic microphone, designed for measuring airbag deployment noise and total impulse of an inflation event occurring inside of an automotive cabin. The unit offers sensitivities of 79.8 mV/kPa (550 mV/psi); a measurement range of 189 dB (57.2 kPa); 96 dB (1.4 Pa) resolution; and frequency response of […]