Crashing Cars - FIVE STAR SECRETS REVEALED

Tata Motors’ success in building a full portfolio of cars that have scored five stars at either the Global New Car Assessment Programme or the newly launched Bharat NCAP is based on extensive in-house crash testing and was revealed earlier this month as it took us on an extensive tour of its crash test facility at its plant in Pune

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Established way back in 1997, the Crash Test facility has accreditation from TUV Germany and has been continuously renovated and refurbished to do the full gamut of tests ranging from full vehicle crash tests to validate structure, restraints, airbag deployment and performing and evaluating vehicle integrity and passenger safety under a whole range of different crash scenarios including those required for safety ratings and many others that are not required, either for meeting legal requirements or for getting a five-star rating from the relevant new car assessment programmes. The crash test facility also tests the full gamut of the Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) that are increasingly playing a bigger role in all modern vehicles including those coming from Tata Motors.

One of the areas on the facility that were showcased was the dummy calibration area where a range of dummies required for various tests as well as the up to 42 sensors of different types that they can be equipped with are validated and calibrated to make sure that they simulate the human body and the sensors provide the correct information of the force the body part is subjected to on impact.