Mexican Media Brands
New VW Safety Center Features Tri-Axis Crash Sled
Volkswagen AG’s namesake unit has opened a new safety center at its headquarters campus in Wolfsburg, Germany.
#regulations
Share
Volkswagen AG’s namesake unit has opened a new safety center at its headquarters campus in Wolfsburg, Germany.
The three-story building has 86,100 sq ft of floor space that brings together various testing equipment under one roof. This includes a newly developed crash sled system that VW says can better simulate accidents and the effects of advanced safety technologies.
The sled’s precisely controllable hydraulic system can simulate a vehicle’s forward pitching and lateral yaw movements immediately prior to impact. This allows engineers to simulate emergency braking maneuvers and other pre-crash safety systems, VW says.
Vehicles weighing as much as three tons can be tested on the sleds at speeds as high as 100 km/h (62 mph). The underfloor cable-rail system allows for travel of about 460 ft.
VW says its development group conducts some 800 sled tests per year. The carmaker also has a separate crash test facility on the Wolfsburg campus.
RELATED CONTENT
-
Study: How States Should Update Traffic Laws for Autonomous Cars
U.S. states should require that all automated cars have a licensed driver on board, suggests a study by the Governors Highway Safety Assn.
-
U.S. in No Hurry to Regulate Autonomous Vehicles
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says the emerging technology involved in self-driving cars is too new to be tightly regulated.
-
Feds Probe Another Tesla Crash Involving Autopilot Feature
Federal investigators are looking into another crash involving a Tesla Model S electric sedan that was operating in semi-autonomous mode.