They had 5 remote control cars with real people controlling the cars from a system that mimics and looks like the inside of the car they were remotely driving. First, they got them familiar with the vehicles they were driving. Then they did multiple driving tests around a huge track with obstacles to see how well they handled the cars. The LAST test - the conductors caused an accident. Most of the drivers did NOT know it was going to happen. They wanted to see their actually reactions to the accident and how they handled it. Part 2 of the show was to bring in accident reconstruction team to analyze what happened. The team did NOT know how the accident happened or see any footage of the accident.
It’s well worth watching.
Ultimate Crash Test | NOVA | PBS
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I liked it too. I posted about it 6 days ago. See my post Ultimate Crash Test. There were 8 drivers in that one. Four were from the test team and four were off the street.
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Great minds think alike I didn’t see your post (sorry), or I wouldn’t have posted mine.
So good it is worth two posts.
I was bothered by one assumption the researchers made. They seemed to assume that the driver experienced at using the remote method would take the same actions as a real driver actually in the crash. Plus, of course, the test lacks repeatability. The best use of the test was to determine the accuracy of the forensic data analysis. Maybe the forensic analysis can get data to compare this accident with a real-world example.
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The amateur members of the team seemed to react as if it was real. Some said so after the test as they inspected the cars.
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I was glad they checked the test subjects (the ones not-in-the-know…) psychologically in an attempt to ensure none would experience “after-shock” and have nightmares from their experiences…
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Even with that, one of the women seemed quite disturbed when inspecting the aftermath. IIRC it was the woman driving the car that stopped short of the truck and was rear ended by the pickup.
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Yes
She was the nervous nellie, right from the start of the experiment, and because she drove more slowly than the rest, she was able to avoid frontal impact–only to be impacted in the rear.
One of the really interesting things about her car–an older Prius–is that even though it looked to have been demolished by the rear impact, the crumple zones worked exactly as designed and the rear seat was pushed forward less than 1 inch. The interpretation was that any rear seat passengers would have escaped any injuries in a similar accident.
Most importantly, the batteries were protected and were not affected by the high speed impact.
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I was very impressed by that too.