Vehicle Safety Research | NHTSA

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.

139 Results

Title

Investigation of Potential Design and Performance Criteria for Booster Seats Through Volunteer and Dynamic Testing This report explores candidate booster performance metrics that have the potential to identify less effective booster systems, since current FMVSS No. 213 booster performance requirements can be met without a booster. Volunteer testing of belt fit and posture along with dynamic sled tests of booster seats was used. Posture and belt fit were measured in 24 children 4 to 12 years old, measured in three vehicles and three laboratory seating conditions. Six different booster seats, as well as the no-booster condition, were evaluated. Test conditions were also evaluated using 6YO, 10YO, and small female anthropomorphic test devices (ATDs). Minor posture differences between children and ATDs were greater in the no-booster condition and the two lower backless boosters compared to the four boosters. To provide a more realistic test environment, dynamic testing using a surrogate seat belt retractor on the most recent preliminary design update for the FMVSS No. 213 seat assembly evaluated 11 boosters as well as the no-booster condition, with six tests performed using the Hybrid III 10YO and 33 tests run with the Hybrid III 6YO.	DOT HS 812 919
Investigation of Potential Design and Performance Criteria for Booster Seats Through Volunteer and Dynamic Testing This report explores candidate booster performance metrics that have the potential to identify less effective booster systems, since current FMVSS No. 213 booster performance requirements can be met without a booster. Volunteer testing of belt fit and posture along with dynamic sled tests of booster seats was used. Posture and belt fit were measured in 24 children 4 to 12 years old, measured in three vehicles and three laboratory seating conditions. Six different booster seats, as well as the no-booster condition, were evaluated. Test conditions were also evaluated using 6YO, 10YO, and small female anthropomorphic test devices (ATDs). Minor posture differences between children and ATDs were greater in the no-booster condition and the two lower backless boosters compared to the four boosters. To provide a more realistic test environment, dynamic testing using a surrogate seat belt retractor on the most recent preliminary design update for the FMVSS No. 213 seat assembly evaluated 11 boosters as well as the no-booster condition, with six tests performed using the Hybrid III 10YO and 33 tests run with the Hybrid III 6YO.	DOT HS 812 919
Functional Safety Assessment of a Generic Accelerator Control System with Electronic Throttle Control in Electric Vehicles This report, one of a series of five reports, describes research assessing functional safety of accelerator control systems with electronic faults, such as errant electronic throttle control signals, focusing on errant signals in motor vehicles with electric propulsion. This study follows the concept phase process in the ISO 26262 standard and applies a hazard and operability study, functional failure modes and effects analysis, and systems theoretic process analysis methods. In total, this study identifies 7 vehicle-level safety goals and 202 ACS/ETC system safety requirements (an output of the ISO 26262 and STPA processes). This study uses the results of the analysis to identify potential opportunities to improve the risk assessment approach in the ISO 26262 standard.	HS DOT 812 656
Crash Avoidance Technology Evaluation Using Real-World Crashes This study analyzes the safety benefits of a variety of crash avoidance safety technologies available on GM light-duty vehicles. The study used data on optional safety content from 1.2 million GM vehicles linked to police-reported crash data by Vehicle Identification Numbers to estimate field performance of new safety technologies equipped on the vehicles. In general, the outcomes support the hypothesis that crash avoidance technologies can help drivers mitigate or avoid the types of crashes the systems were designed to address and therefore have overall positive safety benefits.	DOT HS 812 841
Analysis of Pedestrian Injuries by Passenger Vehicle Model Year This study determined if the latest generation of passenger vehicles offer better safety to pedestrians than previous generations. Using NHTSA’s State Data System data sets in 12 States, we compared the proportion of pedestrians who were injured after being struck by later-model-year vehicles (MY2011 – MY2016) with the proportion struck by earlier-model-year vehicles (MY2001 – MY2005), using three injury categories and three vehicle categories. Analyses showed that differences, though sometimes significant, were small and were inconsistent in which model year group was associated with fewer injuries.	DOT HS 812 819
Stranded Energy Assessment Techniques and Tools The report researched, developed, documented, and demonstrated RESS assessment and dis-charge procedures with enabling technology and architecture requirement, including device concepts, which may be commonly integrated into RESS designs for the safe management, removal, and handling of stranded energy of an inoperative RESS. These methods and interfaces should be applicable to both damaged and fully functional RESS systems and should comprehend both the current state-of-the-art as well as probable future directions. Non-operational environments should include service repair, end of life disassembly, vehicle crash scene (minor damage), vehicle crash scene (major damage), fire damage (e.g., garage fire), vehicle towing, and vehicle storage.	DOT HS 812 789
Li-Ion Battery Propagation Trigger Technique Development/ Igniter Development This report describes single-cell thermal runaway initiator activities performed at Sandia National Laboratories looks at novel initiation methods applied to initiate or simulate failure of a single-cell test. As increasingly complex lithium-ion systems are used, concern has arisen surrounding thermal runaway propagation, specifically that a random field failure of a single cell could cause cascading failure of other nearby, otherwise healthy, batteries. Testing was also performed to develop a contained thermite test device. Commercial thermite materials successfully initiated thermal runaway within a single cell. To date no crucibles tested have could fully contain the thermite reaction, making this technique difficult outside of specialized testing laboratories. Ongoing work will make a final determination of the feasibility of a sealed thermite test device. Proof-of-concept testing with a near IR pulse laser was also performed, successfully initiating failure in pouch and cylindrical cells with a minimal energy input.	DOT HS 812 786
Human Factors Research On Seat Belt Assurance Systems This report documents a limited naturalistic field study conducted to evaluate how part-time seat belt users interact with two prototype seat belt assurance systems (SBAS), including a transmission interlock system and a speed limiter system. Data on participants' driving behavior and their interactions with the SBAS were collected and, along with subjective ratings, were used in the final analysis. The results showed statistically significant improvements in seat belt use for both SBAS types such that the percentage of unbelted driving time (or trips) significantly decreased during the treatment period as compared to the percentage of unbelted driving time (or trips) during the baseline period. This report support NHTSA's mission to save lives, prevent injuries, and reduce economic costs due to road traffic crashes, through education, research, safety standards and enforcement activity.	DOT HS 812 838
Determination of Optimal RibEye LED Locations in The WorldSID 50th Percentile Male Dummy This report documents methods and results of testing and analysis to determine optimal locations for RibEye LEDs to measure chest deflection in the WorldSID 50th percentile male crash test dummy. This study determined that the optimal locations for the front and rear chest deflection measurements, along with the lateral-most location, which is currently measured, occur at a linear distance of 35 mm in the x direction with respect to the lateral-most location. Using these optimal measurement locations, estimated deflections resulted in a worst-case error of 9 mm and a mean error of 1.1-1.4 mm. In comparison, measuring deflection in the current tests at only a single location (lateral-most location), would have resulted in a maximum error of 23 mm, and an average error of 4.7 mm. This project supports NHTSA’s mission to reduce the number of deaths and injuries by studying how best to position chest deflection sensors to measure maximum deflection, which is used to estimate injury risk in crash tests.	DOT HS 812 758
Feasibility of Vehicle-to-Vehicle Retrofit For Heavy Vehicles Research on the feasibility of vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) retrofits for heavy trucks in this report includes an estimate of the total number of class 3 to 8 buses and trucks in the U.S. fleet; engineering analysis of three installation configurations to retrofit nearly all of them, cost estimates for the V2V technologies and the installation across four volume estimates, and total cost estimates of retrofitting nearly the entire fleet using three scenarios based on different distributions of the three installation configurations. The lowest estimated cost per vehicle for the V2V technology and its installation was approximately $450 to $550, based on volume estimates of 10 million and 1 million, respectively. The total costs of retrofitting nearly the entire fleet of class 3 to 8 vehicles ranged from $5.5 billion to $8.5 billion.	812 768