NHTSA's research programme for vehicle agressivity and fleet compatibility

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's (NHTSA's) vehicle aggressivity and compatibility research program explores the global evaluation of vehicle crashworthiness designs as a means of minimizing injuries in the subject vehicle while simultaneously minimizing injuries in the vehicle's collision partners. The objectives of this research program are to identify the nature and extent of the aggressivity problem within the U.S. fleet, to develop test procedures to evaluate vehicle compatibility, and to investigate potential countermeasures for vehicle aggressivity through both vehicle testing and fleet modeling. This research program is being conducted in close cooperation with the International Harmonized Research Activities compatibility working group. While monitoring the changing vehicle mix in the U.S. fleet, analyzing crash statistics, and evaluating any implications that these changes may have for U.S. occupant safety, NHTSA also is conducting full scale crash testing to develop a better understanding of vehicle compatibility and to investigate test methods that can be used to assess vehicle compatibility. This paper presents an overview of this research program along with a summary of the results achieved to date.