You may not know the company Magna, as it doesn't market to consumers. They provide all kinds of products and service to the auto industry, and one of the things they do is conduct car safety testing, involving Anthropomorphic Test Devices, which is the official term for crash test dummies. They conduct around 800 tests a year, which cause around 3,200 "injury events" for the dummies. Those dummies cost up to a million dollars each, depending on their purpose, and Magna throws them around like toys. The dummies come in male, female, and child sizes, and are loaded with sensors that give feedback on injuries. Some dummies are just body parts, like an artificial leg that is used as a pedestrian.
Andrew P. Collins took a deluxe tour of the Magna research and development facility in Sailauf, Germany, to meet the dummies, witness the crash testing, and see how it all comes together to make cars safer on the roads. He explains the state of the research and the torture that crash test dummies go through for us at The Drive.
(Image credit: Magna)