Traffic safety: Toyota’s top priority

Rad motorization rate in Asia is becoming more and more of a challenge as mortality rate in due to traffic accidents tends to increase. This urgent issue needs to be quickly addressed by all traffic participants, governments and even carmakers, including Toyota.

To reduce mortality rate due to traffic accidents, Toyota has made use of a comprehensive approach based on a combination of 3 factors: Human, traffic environment and vehicle, with the ultimate target being the complete termination of traffic-related deaths.

The human factor emphasizes the need of traffic safety education for all traffic participants: from children to adult. “Traffic Environment”, on the other hand, focuses on the infrastructure which can be dealt with through the cooperation between Toyota and the government of the corresponding country. Finally, the “Vehicle” aspect is demonstrated through Toyota’s effort to create the safest vehicles.

As the leading automaker in the world, Toyota categorizes safety methods through 3 criteria: accident analyzing, accident simulating and technology developing which can result in better and safer outcome.

One good example of the testing process is the 360-degree driving simulation at Toyota Higashi-Fuji R&D Center that provides the most accurate driving behavior.

The level of detail in the simulation is well proven through THUMS (Total Human Model for Safety). THUMS has been developed by Toyota since 1997 as they need a correct and fully intact mannequin in safety tests to reflect the exact extent of injury on human body.

Thus, such a model was developed. Toyota has created a lof of different models with different aspects: size, gender, age… and as of now, THUMS has reached its 5^th generation.

In August 2016 at Higashi-Fuji R&D Center, Toyota also implemented its new impact text format. Instead of a direct-impact test, Toyota has tried (for the first time) an impact corner of 15 degree, which resulted in a heavy collision with a 2.5-ton trolley traveling at 90 km/h.

The vehicle being tested at that time was the Toyota Prius Hybrid 2016 (which belonged to the 4^th generation). It was also the first model to make use of Toyota’s latest global body structure named TNGA. The result said it better than anything else as TNGA showed massive superiority compared to the old, outdated GOA.

In the event of a collision at high speed, the new Prius body has a much lower rate of deformation compared to its predecessor (55%) thanks to the force absorption structure. Short circuit – also a concern of many when thinks of a hybrid vehicle, is also non-existant thanks to the thoroughly thoughtful safety features developed by Toyota. The heat insulation is automatically turned on while the power supply is disconnected in term of accident to ensure the safety of vehicle occupants. The number said it best: no death has ever been recorded related to Toyota’s hybrid vehicles since the introduction of the segment in 1997. Moreover, it helped Prius score 5-star in NHTSA’s test.

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