Well, we’ve had cars for a long time….but finally we’ll be testing them for safety for women, too.

In a sea of bad news, today this got me excited.

  • TheSlorpGuy@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    38
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    1 year ago

    From the article they cite at the top in an effort to claim that crash tests since the 1960’s have only used male dummies… ”GM also needed a test device to simulate a small female for testing of driver airbags. In 1987, GM transferred the Hybrid III technology to a dummy representing a 5th percentile female."

    Not saying that a true representation of the female body isn’t needed, just that this specific article is hyperbolic in its wording and is misconstruing it’s sources to produce a desired narrative. Maybe best to find articles with a more nuanced, fact based reporting

    • SariEverna
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      1 year ago

      I listened to a podcast episode about this, I believe it was 99% Invisible. The female dummies that have been used in the past are basically just scaled down males. That’s not exactly ideal.

    • hddsx
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      1 year ago

      Access denied on the link with “we don’t know how you got here”.

      • Luke_Fartnocker@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        10
        ·
        1 year ago

        Not sure why, but here is the same picture I put on Imgur. It’s from 2014, but there are female, teenager, children, and baby crash test dummies going back decades. This is nothing new.

  • wolfylow@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    16
    arrow-down
    5
    ·
    1 year ago

    It honestly boggles my mind that in 2023 there are still no mandatory crash tests required for the female form.

    Additionally, I drive a lot of hire cars and it’s shocking how many makes/models’ seatbelts would effectively garrotte me if I were to crash while driving.

  • themeatbridge@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    9
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    1 year ago

    People come in a lot of shapes and sizes. I kind of always assumed that crash test dummies would also come in a variety of sizes to test. I’m a bit shocked that we’re just now getting to the “average adult woman” dummy model, considering I’m a statistical outlier in terms of size. But thinking about it now, that does explain a lot of the ergonomics of the cars I’ve driven.