It is not often that a manufacturer opens the doors of its plants or its R&D or test centers. For this reason I consider myself very lucky to have been among the few who have been able to visit the Polygon Test Center in Uhelnice, a center of excellence (awarded in 2020 with the Crash Laboratory of the Year) where Skoda celebrated 50 years of crash test in the Czech Republic. It was 1972, the country was called Czechoslovakia and the first car to face the tests of the time was the Skoda 100 L pushed at 48 km/h by a steam rocket against an obstacle fixed (via a rail that ended five meters before a concrete wall).
It is said that the first test was that of a Skoda 1000 MB launched at 20 km/h against a wall in 1968, but there is no documentary evidence of this. The car did not use external propulsion systems, but the carburetor adjustment had been made to allow it to reach this speed; to a minimum.
Today the manufacturer has a personal record: all 15 new models introduced since 2008 have always achieved five EuroNCAP stars and, in 2021, the new Fabia and Enyaq iV were the most; safe in the segment to which they belong.
SECURITY COSTS 
Over the years, the price of cars has increased; significantly increased and, often, we complain that the first generation, purchased perhaps at a young age, was much less expensive than the latest version of the same model purchased ten, twenty or thirty years later.
The one on which very few, however, dwell on & egrave; that safety (passive and active) has made enormous progress. Today it is; more and more; hard to die in the car, but the car is become more & ugrave; safe even for weak road users (pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists, scooters).
Today we all want to see the 5 EuroNCAP stars and very high scores, but we do not stop to investigate how these results can be achieved in tests that become , year after year, more and more; rigid and severe . Just to give you an order of magnitude, during the design phase of the car (before the official tests) a manufacturer like Skoda (and certainly not the only one) runs around 20,000 computer simulations and a couple of hundreds of physical tests of the parties most involved in the event of a collision, and this only to determine safety in the event of a pedestrian accident.
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All this means that the car is designed, then tested (digitally and actually) and, if you find that something is wrong, you go back to design by changing the materials or the drawings.
At that point, however, it is necessary to verify that the changes do not impact on aerodynamics, design or manufacturability; of the components in the factory, otherwise the costs would increase further. And this cycle continues until & eacute; the final result is not achieved which ensures, in internal tests, the passing of the homologation tests first, and of the safety tests (EuroNCAP, Global NCAP, etc.) afterwards.
WE ARE NOT ALL THE SAME 
Today there are dummies capable of simulating most of the types of female physique, for example, in addition to the male one of various sizes and that of children which is tested with the appropriate restraint systems, and therefore ensures the safety of the most; small only if they use a seat suitable for their size and age; (theme well testified by Filippo during his visit to the Cybex laboratory).
STANDARD EQUIPMENT 
style=”clearp leftManufacturers can then decide to add functionality; complementary to the minimum requirements that also include all electronic traction/ABS controls and airbags (on the cars of the Czech brand there are at least six as standard, Octavia reaches ten). Skoda offers on the whole range (standard or optional depending on the model), all the most; advanced levels of active safety and semi-autonomous driving, once reserved only for flagships.
Among these there is; Travel Assistant with adaptive Cruise Control that can & ograve; also be predictive, the evolved version of lane monitoring (Adaptive Lane Assistant) which also recognizes road works, or preventive systems such as occupant protection.
The latter is standard on Octavia, Karoq, Kodiaq, Superb and Enyaq iV and when it detects an impending collision it tightens the seat belts, closes the windows and turns on the hazard lights.
A QUESTION OF NUMBERS 
pp>Modern plants such as that of Uhelnice, near Mlada Boleslav, must be able to count on numbers capable of allowing a wide variety; of test. Polygon has expanded the test facility from the original 50 meters to 100 meters, allowing vehicles to be launched at speed; more constant so & igrave; not to affect the position of the mannequins.
Today the arrest room is; longer longer of 180 meters and allows to launch two vehicles with a total weight up to 3.5 tons in frontal approach: both can be launched at a maximum of 65 km/h or a single one at 120 km/h. Collisions are currently simulated at 50 km/h.
The test facility then houses nine adult dummies and four child mannequins used in test vehicles and positioned in the passenger compartment to the millimeter by means of static photogrammetry that allows you to always have the seat in the correct position.
To supervise the tests there is a measurement wall to record the forces generated during the impact as well as 20 static cameras and 30 high-speed HD cameras (the number of frames per second counts more than the resolution) integrated during crash tests. Recently & egrave; A vehicle flooding system was also added, used following crash tests involving electric vehicles, as required by law.
Speaking of numbers and technologies, electric cars must be mentioned, subject to crash tests like all crash test cars. At the design stage, a battery-powered car has to contend with battery numbers of an order of magnitude greater than traditional cars: the voltage & egrave; 400/800 V depending on the technology used. The battery of the electric is; built into the floor and its modules are enclosed in an impact resistant and waterproof casing.
The equipment is completed by the rel & egrave; protection and sensors: in the event of an accident, the electrical components are disconnected from the battery within milliseconds and, by independent tests (including some extended in addition to legal requirements), & egrave; it has been shown that the battery & egrave; remained intact even in the face of strong deformations of the bodywork and the interruption system worked in all collisions.
FAKE BODY, TRUE REACTIONS 
In addition to dummies, security tests also employ simulated body parts from devices that are also stuffed of sensors. Uhelnice's Polygon Test Facility has made available some of the main ones, including two spheres that simulate the head (same size, but different weight depending on whether they are adults or children) and limbs.
Specifically, the legs used in the tests have evolved over time, starting from fixed models that made it possible to analyze the traumas but did not take into account the natural joints, to more models; which are now standard in Europe. In some cases, such as in India, the legislation still allows the use of the previous model (the blue one in the image below).
Both versions go to evaluate damage to muscles, tendons and bones , but also in this case there is; was an important evolution. If the tendons version & quot; 1.0 & quot; were represented by metal elements with the same resistance as the human ones, the version & quot; 2.0 & quot; uses a potentiometer and & egrave; more compact to pi & ugrave; precise in quantifying the forces generated during the impact.
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