RESEARCH & EVALUATION
Vehicle Safety Research
Vehicle Safety
The Office of Vehicle Safety Research and supports U.S. DOT’s and NHTSA’s safety goals by conducting research and safety testing of motor vehicles and motor vehicle equipment.
NHTSA’s recently published vehicle safety reports are listed chronologically below.
| Title | Report |
|---|---|
Evaluation of Heavy-Vehicle Collision Warning Interfaces – Follow-On TestingThis follow-on study to a 2015 report evaluated heavy-truck collision warning interfaces focused on the auditory and visual components of a forward collision warning system. This follow-up evaluated nighttime conditions and the implications of delaying the visual component of the alert. Overall, test drivers who received warning alerts responded significantly quicker than drivers who did not receive alerts, similar to the original testing. Delaying the visual component resulted in 100 percent of drivers looking forward to the road as their first response, but did not result in quicker brake response times versus when not delaying the visual alert. |
DOT HS 813 825 |
Conventional Vehicle Driver and Automated Driving System-Equipped Vehicle InteractionsThis report describes findings of an on-road experiment that investigated drivers’ behaviors around a vehicle identified as a “self-driving” vehicle. Researchers collected data on public highways using a research vehicle, which on different drives had the outward appearance of either a conventional vehicle or an ADS mockup vehicle. During data collection trips on a fixed freeway route, the behavior of nearby drivers and their vehicles were observed and recorded. Observers noted that nearby drivers exhibited longer glances, more surprised expressions, and occasional gestures or even camera use when approaching or passing the mockup research vehicle, and drivers generally took longer to pass it. However, objective measures of potentially unsafe actions (e.g., cut-ins, tailgating) showed no statistically significant differences between the mockup research vehicle and conventional vehicle. |
DOT HS 813 751 |
Low-Cost Pedestrian Safety Zone Case StudyA previous study by Blomberg and Cleven (1998) developed a pedestrian safety zone approach in Phoenix, Arizona, and Chicago, Illinois, focusing on pedestrian safety countermeasures in subsets of the cities that had experienced a high number of crashes involving people 65 and older. It proved efficient deploying countermeasures, significantly reducing the targeted pedestrian crashes in Phoenix. This original zone process, however, still needed significant resources to address the entire city, and required a relatively long time to plan and implement. The primary objectives of the present study included adapting the previous zones approach to be implementable quickly by cities using their resources and demonstrating the resulting low-cost pedestrian safety zones approach in several cities. Three cities—Gainesville, Florida; Kalamazoo, Michigan; and Saint Paul, Minnesota—agreed to demonstrate the low-cost zones approach. Each site prepared a case study report documenting the activities reported here. The approach appeared flexible and effective in all three cities. The discussion section of this report includes ideas for supporting more widespread use of the technique. |
DOT HS 813 747 |
Development of an Alternative Shoulder For the THOR-50MThis report describes the design of two alternative shoulders for the THOR-50M crash test dummy because the version of the shoulder currently described in the drawing package has patents associated with it. The two alternative shoulder designs underwent legal review to determine if they would infringe on any patents. After the legal review the shoulders were evaluated for fit and performance. This report primarily describes the installation, fit, and performance evaluations of those alternative shoulders. |
DOT HS 813 681 |
Evaluation of Motorcycle Helmet Test ProceduresFMVSS No. 218, Motorcycle helmets, specifies minimum performance requirements for helmets used by motorcyclists and other motor vehicle users. FMVSS No. 218 has three performance test types that have remained largely unchanged since it was first published in 1973: an impact attenuation test, a penetration test, and a retention system test. In 2013 NHTSA initiated a helmet testing research program with compliance test labs. Based on this testing, adjustments were made to the test procedures and were evaluated in this study. NHTSA’s testing in this report aimed to (1) assess the feasibility of conducting modified FMVSS No. 218 tests and other performance tests, and (2) evaluate the repeatability of each of the modified test procedures assessed. Six helmet models were tested in six test types. Two of the test types were based on tests included in FMVSS No. 218, while four of the test types were based on tests included in international standards. |
DOT HS 813 782 |
UNECE Global Technical Regulation No. 13 Fire and Closure TestsThis research evaluated the fire test and primary closure test procedures outlined in the draft United Nations Economic Council for Europe Global Technical Regulation GTR No. 13 and the revised NHTSA test methods, as opposed to examining individual specimens. This report is divided into two parts: Part 1 covers the fire tests where two series of tests on compressed hydrogen storage systems evaluated the fire test procedures. Part 2 tested primary closure components including the thermally activated pressure relief device, check valves, and shutoff valves, following the draft GTR No. 13 procedure. Based on findings, the test methods were revised, and both fire and primary closure testing were repeated using the updated procedures. |
DOT HS 813 750 |
Evaluation and Comparison of Glazing Performance in Impact TestsFMVSS No. 205, Glazing materials, uses impact test methods specified in ANSI/SAE Z26.1-1996. NHTSA’s Vehicle Research and Test Center evaluated a subset of ANSI test methods including the 227-g ball, shot bag impact tests, fracture test on tempered glass, and the ball test and dart test on laminated glass. Other research studied potential changes to tempered glass strength due to the ceramic paint area (CPA) and compared the performance of 12-by-12-inch flat samples and full-size production parts. Glass evaluated included tempered rear quarter, sunroof, and backlight glazing and laminated windshield glazing. A modified shot bag with stiffened sidewalls was compared to the ANSI standard shot bag. Overall trends showed a decrease in glazing strength due to the CPA when struck with the 227-g ball. The ECE R43 fracture test location produced larger pieces than the ANSI fracture location. Laminated ball and dart tests produced similar results. Sample and production tests also generally had similar results for both the tempered and laminated glazing. |
DOT HS 813 753 |
Early Detection of Thermal Runaway With Advanced DiagnosticsThis research investigated early detection of safety risks of Li-ion battery packs in electric/hybrid vehicles. Early detection technologies included rapid electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, sensing of volatile organic compounds, and H2 gas sensing technology. These sensors were used to monitor cells and packs for failure markers. This research evaluates the warning times during overtemperature and overcharge tests. The results show rapid electrochemical impedance spectroscopy consistently warned earlier for the overtemperature tests. For the overcharge tests, volatile organic compound gas sensors provided an earlier warning. The H2 sensors consistently had the shortest warning time for both test types. |
DOT HS 813 671 |
An Evaluation of Light-Vehicle Automatic Emergency Brake System Responses to 2-Wheel Road UsersThe research in this report used three test scenarios to evaluate the automatic emergency braking (AEB) performance of four light vehicles when presented with a test surrogate designed to emulate a bicyclist or motorcyclist as the principal target vehicle (POV). Two motorcycle and two bicycle test surrogates, and two lateral overlaps per POV type, were used for each test scenario. Time-to-collision values at the onset of the test vehicle's forward collision warning and automatic braking initiated by the AEB systems are presented. |
DOT HS 813 758 |
Pedestrian Test Mannequin Radar Cross-section Repeatability EvaluationThis report documents the repeatability of measuring the radar cross-section of two pedestrian mannequin test surrogates designed to emulate an adult and a child pedestrian. The test methodology discusses using two measurement procedures from the International Organization for Standardization surrogate devices that aided in the calibration offset calculations and results. |
DOT HS 813 748 |