Safety: a priority for manufacturers and users

摘要

Over the last ten years, automobile safety has become the priority for both manufacturers and users. All of the knowledge acquired by engineers since the 1970s has been implemented in the cars' structures and restraint systems alike. Research and development has accelerated over the last few years, increasing the degree of protection available to vehicle occupants. These developments now extend to traffic partners outside the vehicle, and first and foremost, to pedestrians. These major vehicle developments have contributed to the substantial reduction in the number of road accident victims. In a country such as France, the risk per kilometre driven of being killed in a car accident has been reduced sevenfold over a 30-year period (figure 1, next page). The objective of continuing to significantly reduce the number of road victims is thus an attainable goal. In fact, in spite of the inherent limits of the human body's resistance to impact, the development of new technologies and new materials opens up new opportunities for progress to engineers. Inter-vehicle compatibility in a collision, for a car population that is increasingly heterogeneous in terms of weight, geometry and rigidity, is an important avenue for progress, and a challenge to engineers. "Pre-crash" management is also another avenue which shows great potential and one which combines primary and secondary safety. Rapidly developing sensor technology, in fact, makes it possible to envisage preparing the vehicle and its occupants for a collision in the moments that precede impact.