Crash Test Dummies Hit The Ground, Virtual Models Hit The Mark

A new age of vehicle crash testing has emerged, marked by a milestone from the US Department of Transportation. After decades of relying on male-centric data, the department unveiled an advanced female crash test dummy model in November 2025: THOR-05F.

For much of automotive history, crash testing has been centred on the average male body – a practice that inadvertently shaped everything in automotive design, from airbag deployment timing to seatbelt geometry. Female testing relied on scaled-down male data developed over three decades ago, missing critical differences in female posture and shape. The THOR-05F seeks to carve a new legacy for female driver safety. Closing this data gap allows a heightened level of biomechanical insight for more thoughtful safety design. Packed with more than 150 sensors, it measures injury risk across a range of vulnerable body regions: head, neck, chest, pelvis, spine and limbs. These sensors allow engineers to detect subtle differences in loading, internal stresses and injury mechanisms that previous dummies were simply not built to measure.

Yet the arrival of the THOR-05F highlights an uncomfortable but unavoidable truth: even the most advanced dummy can only represent a single body. No two bodies are alike, and differences in height, age, musculature and posture can completely alter crash outcomes. Consider the reduced bone density and slower response times of older adults, the posture differences of pregnant passengers, or the mobility devices used by people with disabilities. Adding another layer of complexity, autonomous vehicles bring fresh and unpredictable hurdles for testing occupant safety. Passengers could be lounging, reclining and behaving unpredictably, while crashes occur for reasons beyond human control. In these scenarios, traditional test positions crumble. A physical dummy can simply never account for all human safety, so are these advancements redundant?

Physical crash test dummies are therefore shifting from being a safety design tool to a real-world validation method – one piece of a much broader, more adaptive ecosystem. EHS and safety engineering technologies now allow designers to push safety decisions upstream, long before a prototype exists. Virtual reality, full vehicle digital twins and digital human models enable engineers to simulate thousands of crash scenarios with varied occupants and environments. As these simulations run, engineers can identify subtle patterns, recalibrate airbag timing, adjust seat geometry or redesign structural components long before a car is built.

Humanetics, a leading global manufacturer of anthropomorphic test devices (ATDs), demonstrates how digital simulation and physical testing can be merged. It not only manufactures physical test dummies, but also provides finite-element human models, 3D body scan databases, ergonomic simulation software and virtual digital twins of ATDs, enabling unlimited iterations of real-world crashes with varying body types.

EHS technologies make it possible to push safety decisions upstream, embedding inclusivity and human variability directly into the early stages of design. Improving safety is not just about adding more dummies – it is about integrating physical data, virtual humans and predictive modelling to shield everybody that takes the wheel.

To learn more about how EHS is evolving, tune into our webinar on predictions for EHS and Quality in 2026.