GM’s new crash test dummies

I just read an article about the new crash test dummies that GM are using, and all I can say is wow.

I’m no expert in the field of safety testing and crash test dummies, but these particular dummies can transmit data 10,000 times per second, and they come with 50-100 sensors each. Now the article isn’t 100% clear on if that’s 10,000 times from all the sensors collectively, or 10,000 timers PER sensor. But if it’s the latter then that is an amazing amount of information. Each transmission at the lowest level can be a “yes” or “no” answer – a.k.a – 1 byte of information, so that’s atleast 10,000 bytes (10kb) of information per second, 80(ish) sensors that’s 800Kb of data per second, so nearly 1 Mb per second. Sadly – that’s faster than my internet downloads data, about 730Kb faster in fact. Driving a car into a wall and capturing that reaction must take about 45 seconds, so that comes to 36Mb per dummy in an accident, and that’s assuming that each transmission is 1 byte. Each sensor could be measuring a multitude of variables with each transmission.

That is pretty awesome in a geek kinda way. I understand if no one else shares my excitement, this is a combination of my favourite things: cars, destruction and data.