October 23, 2014 • 30 mins
This evasive maneuver test has been performed in Sweden since the 1970s, but what is it, exactly? Why is it called the Moose Test?
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Go behind the wheel, under the hood and beyond with
car Stuff from house stuffworks dot com. Hello, welcome to
car Stuff. Thanks for tuning in on ben Bowling hand.
I'm Scott Benjamin, and today we're doing things a little
bit differently. Scott. You usually do the introductions typically, we
(00:23):
decided that we would we tried just something a little
bit different because we're talking about something a little bit
different today. Uh, Scott, without giving away the bulk of
our our show today, Uh, what do you think of
when you think of Scandinavia and the navy? Gosh, I'm
just in general, just I got cold weather. Um, yeah,
(00:47):
see beautiful women of course, Um, it's true. Maybe the wildlife. Yeah,
that's that's a really good point because there is quite
a bit of wildlife in Scandinavia. We know that in
varying countries, the climate it doesn't really lend itself to
a bunch of people living in rural areas, but animals
(01:10):
that have adapted to survive in these climates are thriving
and they're very um they're very assertive laws about protecting
these animals. And all of this leads us to one
other thing that Scandinavia does a little bit differently, which
is car testing. Yeah, that's right. And you know the
funny thing is it's really a pretty basic test, right,
(01:33):
I mean it's it's it's just an invasive maneuver test. Uh.
That's the real name of the test that we're talking
about today. But in it was coined the moose test
or the Elk test by by a certain individual. We'll
talk about him as we get to it here. But um,
it's basically just a test to determine how well a
a type of vehicle can evade a suddenly appearing obstacle,
(01:54):
something that that darts out in the road in front
of you unexpectedly. Yeah, that happens. It speeds about seventy
to eighty kilometers an now, ur so forty five to
fifty Yeah, Ben, you're right up to you know, about
fifty miles, right around the max. We'll talk about speeds later,
I promise. And for Americans listening, one thing that is
(02:15):
comparable to this would be uh, dear collisions, which happened
year round in the United States. And Uh, well, I
think I've got a statistic here that I can pull
up at some point. Well, let me tell you this, Ben,
while you're looking for that. I will I will say
that forms of this test have been performed in Sweden
since about the nineteen seventies, so more than forty years
(02:38):
they've been doing this. And you know, it hasn't always
been called the moose test, as we mentioned you, it
wasn't until that came about. So it's a relatively recent
thing that we'll get to. But you know, other manufacturers
do this. It's just that you know, this for whatever reason,
has been point to moose test, and it's it's kind
of a uh, I don't know how to put this bend.
A lot of people just kind of talk about it.
(02:59):
It's something that people, uh find it interesting to throw
into a conversation when they're talking about evasive maneuvers or
car testing or um you know, safety standards. For sure,
they talk about the moose or elk tests. Yeah, and
it might sound it might sound a little silly on
the offset because I'm sure some people are thinking, what
that's so crazy that Scandinavia has so many moose that
(03:20):
there has to be a test for every car um
to you know, be sold in Scandinavia with this. But
it's a serious it's a serious problem. The idea of
moose collisions. Just for comparison, you know, we have the
same problem in the United States, a similar one. Uh.
There's an estimated one point to three million deer vehicle
(03:42):
collisions in the US between July one, two thousand eleven
and June thirty. That's a significant amount of collisions. Four
billion dollars of vehicle damage total is huge, now, you
know what I know, when when I lived in Michigan,
when it was deer hunting season, that was always the
most dangerous time on the road as the deer on
the move, you know, they're running away from hunters that
(04:02):
are in the woods, crossing smaller rural roads. Um. You know,
it's it's a real danger. And if you know it's
happening at dusk, it's happening at you know, um the daybreak,
you know, at at dawn, so you know it's the
time when you know, maybe your vision isn't the greatest
because of you know, the sunshine your eyes. It's it's
a very dangerous situation. And you know, moose are far
(04:23):
more common in Sweden uh than they are here. I
mean they're actually there's a lot of in Canada as well,
but um, they're common in Sweden, they're common in Norway, Finland,
Northern Russia, and I mentioned Canada as well, but they're
not very common in denmarker Germany, and Germany is where
the guy that coined the term for the moose test
is from. He was a German journalist, right all right,
(04:43):
And he was trying to and I've got a whole
thing here about how the moose tess got its name. Um,
you want to do that before we get to the
actual test itself, all right, So we'll talk about how
this test cat's name. I was back in, like you mentioned,
and really it came about when they're was this Mercedes
a class test that was happening, and a class A
lot of people may not be familiar with what that is.
(05:06):
It's a five door hatchback design, at least it was
back in. Is a very small, um kind of an
egg shaped vehicle, it's the best way to put it.
I suppose it's a tall kind of short length, um
you know, body shape. It didn't have a very long wheelbase,
very small. So in this journalist his name was Robert Collin,
and I believe he was a German, right, Okay, he was.
(05:27):
He was um reporting or trying to describe this test,
that that where he had overturned a brand new Mercedes
A class vehicle UM in what he called the moose test, well,
which was you know, then called the evasive maneuver test
um not. But he had to describe this because a
Trabant which was a much older and and as they said,
(05:50):
widely mocked car from the former German Democratic Republic, which
it's East Germany. Really, I mean, so this is an
iron curtain car. This, this iron curtain car effectively manage
the course a lot, you know, more effortlessly than the
than this brand new Mercedes a class And they wanted
to know why. So he describes this test and the
only way that he can say it, you know, like
(06:11):
something that appears uh, you know suddenly, he described it
as maybe like you're trying to evade a moose that
had wandered onto the road. And I guess that's a
fitting way to describe it, right Yeah. In the interview
with here we go, I'm going to try for the German, right,
I apologize German speakers, uh sue Deutsche ze toone not bad,
(06:32):
not great. Well, I don't know Germans, so and that's
that's better than I could do. But for anyone who
wants to look up the interview or try to uh
find that, that is where this name originates. And people
love it. People use it way more than evasive maneuvers.
And it's stuck. So now it's called the moose test,
and the moose tests we can get down kind of
like what the the idea of what the moose test is.
(06:54):
If you want to talk about the test specs, which
we can do that. Yeah, So it happens on a
dry road surface. It's not a wet surface or anything
like that. The traffic cones are set up in kind
of an S shape, but it's not exactly what you
might think. Now we're accustomed to seeing cone set up
in a swallow right, so that it's you know, one
cone distance, one more cone a distance between them, exactly right.
(07:15):
You do a very very smooth s type turn through
these things. Right. This is not the case with the
moose test. This is a much more abrupt test. And
think about it this way. The way I have it
kind of drawn out here on my paper is that
you go through a couple of cones so that you're
you're maintaining your lane and you suddenly have to swerve
over into the other lane of traffic and then maintain
that lane for a brief amount of time, and then
(07:36):
swerve back into your lane again, and then also maintain
that lane for whatever set amount of time. Right, And
and of course you're not supposed to be to flip
to lose control of the vehicle to weave in the
lanes either, that's right. The the cones are meant to
simulate the obstacle the road and the road edges in
this case, so instead of going like in a smooth,
(07:59):
flowing s pad and you're kind of going straight, turning
really hard, going straight again, and then turning really hard
than going straight again, and it's very difficult. In fact,
you'll find when we talk about speeds, a lot of
really world performance cars are not doing all that great
in this test. I mean, for a variety of reasons
what we'll talk about. It's a surprising thing though. Of course,
not all car companies use moose testing, but a lot
(08:24):
of Northern European car companies do, like SOB of course,
or Volvo. This this is important because large undulates, not
just moose, but just large hoofed manimals are roaming around there,
you know, elk reindeer. That's true. I didn't even think
about reindeer. Remember that earlier podcast we were saying, think
of the children, Yeah, think of the reindeer. Oh yeah,
(08:46):
well the children be thinking about reindeer. Don't ruin Christmas test,
right you can. I mentioned a few more things about
this test. I just wanted to say that, you know,
there's a few more things that we need to talk about,
some more um specifications that have to be met for
this to be a successful test. Okay, but don't give
away the big, big surprise. Oh I will not. I
will not. There's something that's coming at the end that
will be a surprise. Alright. So the test, the test
(09:06):
car has to have at least one belted person in
each seat available for the vehicle. So, uh, this can
be you know, four people, five people, seven people. Depends
on the type of vehicle, of course. I mean, you know,
the Ferrari that I saw tested had two seats of course, um,
but they also add weights in the trunk to achieve
the maximum load limit for that vehicle, so they completely
(09:27):
max out this vehicle. I see. So you're not just
writing light exactly right, and how the actual test is
carried out. Okay, the driver comes onto the track and
here she quickly swerves into the oncoming lane, you know,
to avoid the object that's supposedly you know, darted out
in front of you, and then immediately swerves back to
avoid oncoming traffic. So that's the idea that you know,
there's you swerve to avoid the thing, but then suddenly
(09:47):
there's someone coming the other way. You have to get
back into your lane, and you have to do this
without overcorrecting, so she can't spin out. Right. The test
is repeated with an increased speed until the car skids,
knocks down cones, or spin around or as you mentioned
Ben flips over. And sometimes they do flip over because
it's a it's a harsh test, it sure is. And
(10:08):
you know the test also counts for more than just
avoiding a mammal. This could be avoiding a reversing car
or child running in the street. But it's it's important
because we have to see how the machine reacts in
that situation. Yeah, exactly. And you know you mentioned the
other other things, right, But the reason that a moose
has kind of stuck as as part of like you
(10:29):
know what the lower I guess you know why they
said that this is a good test, or why that
they should be calling at the moose test, because that,
I guess moose, you know, if they're if they do
walk out into the to the road, a moose is
more likely to just continue walking down the road. They're
not going to really understand that that car approaching is dangerous.
It's just going to cross the road. It may stop
and look at you, but it's likely going to continue
(10:51):
to walk across the road. And your best maneuver would
be to kind of scoop behind the moose rather than
go in front of the moose, because the moose isn't
gonna stop. Yeah, and I guess speed various here and off.
It's if it's strolling, or if the moose is running
or whatever. But even if it's strolling, your best move
is to duck behind the moose and continuely. Now, I
don't know how valuable that will be to any of
(11:12):
our listeners, but who knows. Maybe Scott a little personal anecdote,
so we've talked briefly. I believe off air that I
used to have a job at an insurance industry company,
not quite an insurance agency, and we would get calls
from across North America, so the US and Canada of
(11:34):
people hitting deers and moose, um and these animals. As
anybody who has been unfortunate enough to be involved with
this incident already knows, these animals can do massive amounts
of damage to a car. I'm not even joking, like
you think a flat tire is bad. There there goes
your windshield, your hood, your grill, your headlights. Uh. They
(11:58):
can do damage to things under the Yeah, it's a
big it's a big animal, definitely, with the size of
a moose. I can only only imagine. I only got
one or two moose calls from Canada. I nearly I
nearly hit a moose. I was in the I was
in the passenger seat when we nearly hit a moose
a Colarney, Canada. It was about nineteen somewhere around there.
(12:18):
We went on a camping trip after you know, graduation
from from school, from high school, and we're again Clarna, Canada.
We're gonna do like a canoeing camping type trip. Right.
You don't see anybody for a full week. We're way
back in the middle of nowhere on a gravel road,
a lot of us in the in the vehicle, you know,
the whole group of people, and it's late night. It's
totally black, pitch black out, you know, no moon, nothing
(12:39):
like that. It came not over hill or anything. We're
just going straight down the road. So it's not like
it's a surprise or anything. But the lights just weren't
effective enough, right, So we're in this it was like
a Ford minivan and again it's like midnight or whatever,
maybe one or whatever, and we're just flying down this
this gravel road and suddenly the driver just slams on
the brakes and we skid, skid straightforward, didn't skid off
(13:01):
the road or anything straightforward, and we end up about
four feet away from a baby moose, a young one.
You could tell it was young, but it was huge.
I mean it was looking right in the window of
the vehicle. You know, it's a giant all tall legs.
I mean, it's a moose. You didn't have those giant
horns or anything yet. It was still pretty young, but
it just kind of stood and stare at us and
then wandered on, you know, just kept on going across
(13:22):
the road like you know, what are we doing out
there in its environment, and it was scary because you know,
that could have been it. I mean, it would have
come through the windshield for sure, no doubt. So I
give credit to the driver for being alerted. You know,
one am when a moose is in front of you.
What you know what? This leads me to Scott and
this is a great segue into our information on the
(13:43):
performances of various cars in the moose test, because you
might be surprised by who who performs well and who
performs poor? Have you seen the list I've seen, I've
seen a couple of views. Well, I've got a big
surprise for you, and I will I think i'll just
lead with that, will be surprised with this now. So
I went to the Swedish magazine site that you know
(14:04):
that reviews these things, right this, Uh, I'm gonna try
the pronunciation. I'll give it a shot. How about that?
All right? The the the magazine and the publication that
does this thing. And it's a it's an online site
now most people get it online. I think it's called
Technicians Vowed and that means World of Technology. And again
I apologize for the pronunciation, but it means World of
(14:26):
Technology and English, and it is a it's a leading
motor magazine in Sweden and it features, um, you know,
automotive news, reviews, test drives, things like that of passenger cars,
and and publishes all these uh like new and used
car guides as well. Right, and they've been doing this
for a long long time. So they've been running this
test for a long time. And this is the this
is the publication that's that's famous for running the Moose test.
(14:48):
This is the one and uh, these numbers on this
list go back to about three and if you look
at the full list, which you can online, you can
find the full list. Um, they they've they've done hundreds
of vehicles at this point, and it goes all the
way through two thousand fourteen. They haven't done vehicles yet.
But I was surprised to see what comes out on
(15:09):
top on this lift ben because I printed out the
top twenty five and then also the bottom twenty or so.
We will not go through the whole list, but the
number one is a huge surprise. It is a get
ready for this. I'm a nt Citron Xantia Activa, which
is a V six powered vehicle. Citron is at the
(15:31):
very top of the list, and that is with get
this the second vehicle on the list. Just to give
you how an idea of how well this vehicle performed,
and I'll describe this in just a minute. The second
vehicle on the list is a a two thousand eight
Porsche seven GT three RS and it outperformed that vehicle
and then everything below that for about the first ten
(15:51):
is another Porsche model. How much was what about the
driver that was this guy in the Citron? I can
tell you this is this is why this vehicle so fast?
It was so fast and the speed that it went
through this uh the test before it did it spin
out or whatever? You know what failed? Then the speed
was fifty two point eight miles per hour and the
Porsche was only able to complete it in about fifty
(16:13):
one miles per hour before it spun out or hit
a cone or whatever. So I thought, why why is
the Citron from so fast? Right? And why is it
still It's still number one on the list even after
the cars have been tested, So why is it so fast?
It had at the time you gotta again think about
and now how long ago that was? It had a
(16:35):
computer controlled active suspension system which was said, this is amazing.
This is a system that was said to offer UM
roll free F one style cornering combined with what Sitron
called a legendary magic carpet ride hydra by hydro active suspension.
Now the hydro active suspension thing. I looked into that,
(16:57):
and that is a hydro pneumatic suspension that later licensed
to the likes of Rolls, Royce, Maserati, Pougeot, Mercedes Benz
in the military. So this this hydro pneumatic suspension from
Citron combined with um you know this uh what it
called the the computer controlled active suspension system. All that
(17:18):
combined led this vehicle to be almost completely flat through
the test. It was like it was like this amazing
handling sports car, but it was a sedan. That's strange.
But this is a perfect segue if I if I could, Yeah, sure,
I've got a little more I want to talk about.
But it's okay, fine, well, okay, well let's go. Let's
keep going with what you wanted to say, because I'm
(17:39):
just gonna pretend that I'll segue into that. Okay, Okay,
I'm so everybody listening, I'm seguating from that point earlier understood. Okay,
I got you, I got you, But I just want
to get this out there because my question was why
you know again, I answered that with the components that
were involved, right. So then later I was thinking, why
is the portion of g T three rs from tooth
(18:00):
is an eight still slower than run? I know, why?
Why is that? Why does that have sense? It doesn't
make any sense. So the answer is maybe because they're
not necessarily building cars to pass this specific test. I
am so glad you said that. Okay, is this leading
into what you wanted to say? That's part of it? Yeah,
please go ahead. No, no, I want you to go
ahead and hit it because I've got a bunch of
(18:21):
stuff and I feel like i'm talking to Oh, well,
you're you're never talking too much. The thing that's interesting
is that the Moose test is controversial because amongst carmakers,
not all cars are built to be able to perform
this sort of maneuver. Yeah, and they can perform the maneuver,
but they can't necessarily perform it at a world class
(18:41):
level exactly, and they won't get themselves to like the
top ten spots or something like that, where they can
actually publicize it. Right, So these would be otherwise world
class cars, to take that phrase, and I love it,
but they are not world class moose avoiders, which is
not there's not necessarily anything wrong with that. But regard
lost of how silly this might sound to some folks, Uh,
(19:02):
the reality of the situation is, Uh, this test has
done a lot for safety technology and innovation, but also
uh in some cases safety systems that like the Porsche
Mcon didn't do very well in the moose test, and
that's a brand new one, right, And they said that
(19:22):
it's because of the safety systems that they have for
breaking Oh I saw this it Uh, it's it locks
up one of the wheels right right, and therefore it
makes it slide, and that means that it fails the
test at that point, right right. Also from their perspective,
their engineers thought this was a great regulatory safety device.
(19:42):
So it is a safety device, but just maybe not
necessarily for avoiding moose right or whatever darts out in
front of the road. Now it performs better in other ways.
Sure that they have somehow waited differently than than the
moose tests, right, Okay, I get that. So there's thousands
of tests you can run on a vehicle and each
vehicle is going to excel in its own area. They're
going to perform better. And remember we talked about this,
(20:05):
I think in the past where I've been to to
ride and drive events where they're putting a you know,
Dodge Neon up against the Porsche of Boxer and they
and they play on the on the the favorable characteristics
of the Neon because it had a tighter turning radius.
I believe that the portrait Boxer was able to complete
one part of the test fast enough that it was
able to complete the entire course faster, and therefore they
(20:27):
could say the Neon, you know, triumphs over the Porsche
Boxer in this test. If you don't believe it, drive
it yourself. And and that was how they do it.
They marketing always angles for the best the best performance
right and whatever arena that may be, and by whichever
means exactly right, play with the stats, right, and you know,
mentioning stats. And can I just say this in the
(20:50):
top twenty five that I've got here on this list
of put in front of me, you know, between this
is just to be fair, I guess between the top one,
which is at Citron and the bottom here on my
list of twenty five. Uh, there's really only a seven
kilometer per hour difference, which is only about four and
a half miles per hour between number one and number
twenty five. And there's hundreds on this list, and you know,
(21:10):
towards the end of the list, it drops off considerably
the the poorest performer if you'd like to know, yes,
the poorest performer that they've that they've tested, and you
know the numbers they've they've dropped some of the things
off of this list. And I know they've done this
testing for a long long time. Um, they've dropped some
of the the results off of this list. Because when
you get to about the year two thousand, you can
(21:31):
sort this list, you know, by model, year, by maker,
by speed, you know all that. You can sort this
whole thing ever you want. Um, when you get to
about two thousand, they stopped publishing numbers, but they would
leave certain vehicles on, like they left the I think
they left the Ferrari Tester Rosa on there that they
tested from they left on um you know sits a
(21:51):
round that I mentioned and some other kind of I'm
gonna call them oddball vehicles that they tested. Just I
don think it's just out of interest, you know, people
would look that up. Uh, the worst performing vehicle on
this list, which comes in at exactly half of the
speed of the Citron on the you know, at the
top of the list. Can I guess you can take
a guess? Um, do you think I have a good
(22:11):
chance of getting it? So that means it's not the
Jeep Grand Cherokee. It is not, but they're pretty low. Yeah,
they I know that they had a poor performance. Um
is it the can Go New? Is it the Dacia?
It is not? All right, I've had enough. Alright. This
is something that it may not surprise you when you
hear it. It's a it's a reliant Rialto. Now reliant rialto.
(22:35):
If you remember, this is a three wheeled vehicle. This
is the first thing that clocks because and and it's
an a delta configuration. So it's the one with the
single wheel on the front, two wheels in the back,
and it steers with that front wheel. And this is
the one that you know, top gear. I think they
did a reliant robin maybe or something like that where
you continually rolls over. Why would you put that in
a moose test. Clearly it's not going to do that. Well,
(22:57):
clearly it's not, and it didn't. It's the worst performing
vehicle the list by a by a wide margin. Um.
It comes in at forty two and a half kilometers
per hour, which is a speed of just point four
miles per hour for us here in the United States. Um. Again,
that's half the speed of the Citron, you know, at
the very top of the list, and everything else falls
somewhere in between that. Now, let's let's talk about just
(23:20):
a couple of the innovations that came from this came
from this testing, right, you know, there's stuff like going
all the way back to UH the journalist Robert Collin himself.
There's stuff like the electronics stability program, which would not
have been UH standard for the Mercedes Benz A class
(23:41):
if it were not for this test. And there are
also other Um, there are also other innovations, almost all
concerned with safety, like reinforced windshields where to place the
A pillar in a vehicle? UH. These prevent serious injury
or death in many types of collisions, including one with
a moose. And ladies and gentlemen, I think we're coming
(24:02):
to the part of the show now that we've all
been waiting for, by which I mean at least you
and I have Scott. Uh, this is an avoidance test,
but this is also a crash test. That's right, This
is this is highly unusual. This is my my one
more thing one alright, Ben, So, as you may have guessed,
(24:27):
this is kind of a big deal in Sweden, right,
Oh yeah, alright, So the Swedish auto manufacturers have actually
built a moose crash test dummy. You've heard it, right, Yeah,
that's incredible, isn't. I mean they they've they've bought or
they've built a dummy, a crash test dummy that is
weighted and sized and everything just as a moose would be.
And it makes perfect sense to me. I completely understand
(24:48):
why they would do that. All right. So here's the
here's the story on this. The Swedish National Road and
Transport Research Institute have developed a moose crash test dummy
that they call Mooses, which is a funny mooses, and
the dummy, which is made with a similar weight, center
of gravity and dimensions to a live moose, is used
to recreate realistic moose collisions. And I can completely see
(25:11):
where they're coming from on this. I mean I totally
get it right because I've watched now these are just
so tired of these unrealistic moose collisions. Uh, that's right.
And you know what, just as a side note, I've
got one more thing about the moose too here. But um,
just as a side note, Australian car manufacturers use kangaroo
crash test dummies for the similar purpose because they have,
you know, kangaroo issues on their roads. So so why
(25:33):
not create a kangaroo crash test dummy because that's what
they encounter occasionally. Um. Alright, So the one last thing
on this, this moose situation here, this moose crash test dummy.
If you think it's not serious business, I would like
you to watch this YouTube video. I'm going to tell
you the exact name of the YouTube video and you
will be astounded with what you see because these are
particularly brutal collisions with moose as you've mentioned. Alright, alright,
(25:57):
So the video, if you want to see one, is
called vt that's the industry that that does these tests
of these tests v t I car versus ELK slash
Moose crash test and the vehicle that they crash test
is a Volvo V seventy estates, so it's a station
wagon of course. And when you see this moose crash
(26:18):
test dummy that they have hanging on this apparatus, you know,
the long legs and the body and everything. You know,
it's it doesn't have a head or anything like that
or no tail um. But when they crash this vehicle
into it, this this Volvo, you would not believe the
destruction that happens with this thing, because you've got to
think that the legs are so tall that when the
body comes back down, he comes back down right on
(26:40):
the windshield, right onto just about where the middle of
the windshield is, and the moose remains there in that place.
You know, it rolls a little bit, but not much,
and even on a Volvo, which you and I know
is a solid, solid built car. And safety is I mean,
it really hit the number one, absolutely, the number one
the number one concern Volvo is safety, passenger safety. And
(27:02):
this absolutely caves in a Volvo station wagon windshield. And uh,
I mean it does a lot of structural damage as well.
These are these are a serious, a serious problem I
guess up in that part of the world. Um and
I thought, well, maybe they're going way too fast. You know,
maybe maybe what I'm watching is kind of a an
exaggeration of what happens. Right what It turns out that
(27:25):
the test was conducted at seventy kilos per hour, which
is just forty three miles per hour. Uh so, forty
three miles per hour, I think about that. You're you're
doing a lot faster than that on a lot of
uh you know, backcountry roads wherever, Like where I encountered
that moose. I'm sure we are going faster than forty three,
even those gravel road. But forty three is is enough
to cause significant structural damage to even a very strong,
(27:49):
brand new vehicle. So you know, we're caution here. Just
just take note of any moose in the area, take
care and be aware. And just one more quick thing, Ben, Yeah,
I would just encourage people to watch it because it
really is an eye opener. So so if you can,
if you have a chance, just to take three minutes
and watch that video, well worth it. And that's a
(28:10):
great point, Scott, because while again, while it seems like
such a a funny thing, and we clearly admit that
there's some hilarious stuff about this, and I still think
a moose crash test dummy is pretty funny. This is
also necessary, and this is part of the continual experimentation
and testing that we see whenever a vehicle comes out.
(28:32):
But now we want to know what you think. Have
you ever been unfortunate enough to hit a deer, a moose,
a large mammal? Can I tell you something? Yeah, this
is maybe my final, one last thing. I keep coming
up with more, right, yeah, Uh, my stepmother's father one
time came over a hill I think he's in northern Michigan.
Came over hill on a pickup truck and there was
(28:53):
a pig in the road. And you wouldn't think that
a pig would do a lot of damage right to
a car, But this is a a low, heavy built animal, right,
and it did a significant amount of damage to it,
probably more than a deer, because when you hit a
deer that you know it kind of goes up and over.
A pig stays right where it is and it was
a terrible accident, and you just wouldn't think of things
like that. But like, think about the moose. I mean again,
(29:16):
where it contacts the vehicle, that's all critical, and I
don't know these would What would happen if hed a giraffe?
I guess it would be damaging to the vehicle behind you. Yeah,
you get kicked out of the zoos for sure. They
won't let you take your cars in. I just want
to be clear with everybody. All right, I have I
have no more one last things. All right? Uh, well,
(29:36):
we are going to head out. Lady and gentlemen, that's
our time. We hope that you enjoyed learning about this
test as much as we did, and we would like
to hear your suggestions for stories that we should cover
in the future. Uh, what's the weird car stuff in
your neck of the woods. And also, if you're listening
to this and you did hit a large animal at
(29:58):
some point, we're glad you're okay. We hope your car
made it and we'd love to hear this story. So
hit us up. We're on Facebook and Twitter where car
stuff hs W on both of those and you'll find
some cool things on there. If you want to check
out every podcast we ever made, because iTunes only gives
you what the first three or something. Yeah, so if
(30:20):
you want to see all six hundred plus, you can
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Let us know what you think, send an email to
(30:41):
podcast at how stuff works dot com
Go behind the wheel, under the hood and beyond with
car Stuff from house stuffworks dot com. Hello, welcome to
car Stuff. Thanks for tuning in on ben Bowling hand.
I'm Scott Benjamin, and today we're doing things a little
bit differently. Scott. You usually do the introductions typically, we
(00:23):
decided that we would we tried just something a little
bit different because we're talking about something a little bit
different today. Uh, Scott, without giving away the bulk of
our our show today, Uh, what do you think of
when you think of Scandinavia and the navy? Gosh, I'm
just in general, just I got cold weather. Um, yeah,
(00:47):
see beautiful women of course, Um, it's true. Maybe the wildlife. Yeah,
that's that's a really good point because there is quite
a bit of wildlife in Scandinavia. We know that in
varying countries, the climate it doesn't really lend itself to
a bunch of people living in rural areas, but animals
(01:10):
that have adapted to survive in these climates are thriving
and they're very um they're very assertive laws about protecting
these animals. And all of this leads us to one
other thing that Scandinavia does a little bit differently, which
is car testing. Yeah, that's right. And you know the
funny thing is it's really a pretty basic test, right,
(01:33):
I mean it's it's it's just an invasive maneuver test. Uh.
That's the real name of the test that we're talking
about today. But in it was coined the moose test
or the Elk test by by a certain individual. We'll
talk about him as we get to it here. But um,
it's basically just a test to determine how well a
a type of vehicle can evade a suddenly appearing obstacle,
(01:54):
something that that darts out in the road in front
of you unexpectedly. Yeah, that happens. It speeds about seventy
to eighty kilometers an now, ur so forty five to
fifty Yeah, Ben, you're right up to you know, about
fifty miles, right around the max. We'll talk about speeds later,
I promise. And for Americans listening, one thing that is
(02:15):
comparable to this would be uh, dear collisions, which happened
year round in the United States. And Uh, well, I
think I've got a statistic here that I can pull
up at some point. Well, let me tell you this, Ben,
while you're looking for that. I will I will say
that forms of this test have been performed in Sweden
since about the nineteen seventies, so more than forty years
(02:38):
they've been doing this. And you know, it hasn't always
been called the moose test, as we mentioned you, it
wasn't until that came about. So it's a relatively recent
thing that we'll get to. But you know, other manufacturers
do this. It's just that you know, this for whatever reason,
has been point to moose test, and it's it's kind
of a uh, I don't know how to put this bend.
A lot of people just kind of talk about it.
(02:59):
It's something that people, uh find it interesting to throw
into a conversation when they're talking about evasive maneuvers or
car testing or um you know, safety standards. For sure,
they talk about the moose or elk tests. Yeah, and
it might sound it might sound a little silly on
the offset because I'm sure some people are thinking, what
that's so crazy that Scandinavia has so many moose that
(03:20):
there has to be a test for every car um
to you know, be sold in Scandinavia with this. But
it's a serious it's a serious problem. The idea of
moose collisions. Just for comparison, you know, we have the
same problem in the United States, a similar one. Uh.
There's an estimated one point to three million deer vehicle
(03:42):
collisions in the US between July one, two thousand eleven
and June thirty. That's a significant amount of collisions. Four
billion dollars of vehicle damage total is huge, now, you
know what I know, when when I lived in Michigan,
when it was deer hunting season, that was always the
most dangerous time on the road as the deer on
the move, you know, they're running away from hunters that
(04:02):
are in the woods, crossing smaller rural roads. Um. You know,
it's it's a real danger. And if you know it's
happening at dusk, it's happening at you know, um the daybreak,
you know, at at dawn, so you know it's the
time when you know, maybe your vision isn't the greatest
because of you know, the sunshine your eyes. It's it's
a very dangerous situation. And you know, moose are far
(04:23):
more common in Sweden uh than they are here. I
mean they're actually there's a lot of in Canada as well,
but um, they're common in Sweden, they're common in Norway, Finland,
Northern Russia, and I mentioned Canada as well, but they're
not very common in denmarker Germany, and Germany is where
the guy that coined the term for the moose test
is from. He was a German journalist, right all right,
(04:43):
And he was trying to and I've got a whole
thing here about how the moose tess got its name. Um,
you want to do that before we get to the
actual test itself, all right, So we'll talk about how
this test cat's name. I was back in, like you mentioned,
and really it came about when they're was this Mercedes
a class test that was happening, and a class A
lot of people may not be familiar with what that is.
(05:06):
It's a five door hatchback design, at least it was
back in. Is a very small, um kind of an
egg shaped vehicle, it's the best way to put it.
I suppose it's a tall kind of short length, um
you know, body shape. It didn't have a very long wheelbase,
very small. So in this journalist his name was Robert Collin,
and I believe he was a German, right, Okay, he was.
(05:27):
He was um reporting or trying to describe this test,
that that where he had overturned a brand new Mercedes
A class vehicle UM in what he called the moose test, well,
which was you know, then called the evasive maneuver test
um not. But he had to describe this because a
Trabant which was a much older and and as they said,
(05:50):
widely mocked car from the former German Democratic Republic, which
it's East Germany. Really, I mean, so this is an
iron curtain car. This, this iron curtain car effectively manage
the course a lot, you know, more effortlessly than the
than this brand new Mercedes a class And they wanted
to know why. So he describes this test and the
only way that he can say it, you know, like
(06:11):
something that appears uh, you know suddenly, he described it
as maybe like you're trying to evade a moose that
had wandered onto the road. And I guess that's a
fitting way to describe it, right Yeah. In the interview
with here we go, I'm going to try for the German, right,
I apologize German speakers, uh sue Deutsche ze toone not bad,
(06:32):
not great. Well, I don't know Germans, so and that's
that's better than I could do. But for anyone who
wants to look up the interview or try to uh
find that, that is where this name originates. And people
love it. People use it way more than evasive maneuvers.
And it's stuck. So now it's called the moose test,
and the moose tests we can get down kind of
like what the the idea of what the moose test is.
(06:54):
If you want to talk about the test specs, which
we can do that. Yeah, So it happens on a
dry road surface. It's not a wet surface or anything
like that. The traffic cones are set up in kind
of an S shape, but it's not exactly what you
might think. Now we're accustomed to seeing cone set up
in a swallow right, so that it's you know, one
cone distance, one more cone a distance between them, exactly right.
(07:15):
You do a very very smooth s type turn through
these things. Right. This is not the case with the
moose test. This is a much more abrupt test. And
think about it this way. The way I have it
kind of drawn out here on my paper is that
you go through a couple of cones so that you're
you're maintaining your lane and you suddenly have to swerve
over into the other lane of traffic and then maintain
that lane for a brief amount of time, and then
(07:36):
swerve back into your lane again, and then also maintain
that lane for whatever set amount of time. Right, And
and of course you're not supposed to be to flip
to lose control of the vehicle to weave in the
lanes either, that's right. The the cones are meant to
simulate the obstacle the road and the road edges in
this case, so instead of going like in a smooth,
(07:59):
flowing s pad and you're kind of going straight, turning
really hard, going straight again, and then turning really hard
than going straight again, and it's very difficult. In fact,
you'll find when we talk about speeds, a lot of
really world performance cars are not doing all that great
in this test. I mean, for a variety of reasons
what we'll talk about. It's a surprising thing though. Of course,
not all car companies use moose testing, but a lot
(08:24):
of Northern European car companies do, like SOB of course,
or Volvo. This this is important because large undulates, not
just moose, but just large hoofed manimals are roaming around there,
you know, elk reindeer. That's true. I didn't even think
about reindeer. Remember that earlier podcast we were saying, think
of the children, Yeah, think of the reindeer. Oh yeah,
(08:46):
well the children be thinking about reindeer. Don't ruin Christmas test,
right you can. I mentioned a few more things about
this test. I just wanted to say that, you know,
there's a few more things that we need to talk about,
some more um specifications that have to be met for
this to be a successful test. Okay, but don't give
away the big, big surprise. Oh I will not. I
will not. There's something that's coming at the end that
will be a surprise. Alright. So the test, the test
(09:06):
car has to have at least one belted person in
each seat available for the vehicle. So, uh, this can
be you know, four people, five people, seven people. Depends
on the type of vehicle, of course. I mean, you know,
the Ferrari that I saw tested had two seats of course, um,
but they also add weights in the trunk to achieve
the maximum load limit for that vehicle, so they completely
(09:27):
max out this vehicle. I see. So you're not just
writing light exactly right, and how the actual test is
carried out. Okay, the driver comes onto the track and
here she quickly swerves into the oncoming lane, you know,
to avoid the object that's supposedly you know, darted out
in front of you, and then immediately swerves back to
avoid oncoming traffic. So that's the idea that you know,
there's you swerve to avoid the thing, but then suddenly
(09:47):
there's someone coming the other way. You have to get
back into your lane, and you have to do this
without overcorrecting, so she can't spin out. Right. The test
is repeated with an increased speed until the car skids,
knocks down cones, or spin around or as you mentioned
Ben flips over. And sometimes they do flip over because
it's a it's a harsh test, it sure is. And
(10:08):
you know the test also counts for more than just
avoiding a mammal. This could be avoiding a reversing car
or child running in the street. But it's it's important
because we have to see how the machine reacts in
that situation. Yeah, exactly. And you know you mentioned the
other other things, right, But the reason that a moose
has kind of stuck as as part of like you
(10:29):
know what the lower I guess you know why they
said that this is a good test, or why that
they should be calling at the moose test, because that,
I guess moose, you know, if they're if they do
walk out into the to the road, a moose is
more likely to just continue walking down the road. They're
not going to really understand that that car approaching is dangerous.
It's just going to cross the road. It may stop
and look at you, but it's likely going to continue
(10:51):
to walk across the road. And your best maneuver would
be to kind of scoop behind the moose rather than
go in front of the moose, because the moose isn't
gonna stop. Yeah, and I guess speed various here and off.
It's if it's strolling, or if the moose is running
or whatever. But even if it's strolling, your best move
is to duck behind the moose and continuely. Now, I
don't know how valuable that will be to any of
(11:12):
our listeners, but who knows. Maybe Scott a little personal anecdote,
so we've talked briefly. I believe off air that I
used to have a job at an insurance industry company,
not quite an insurance agency, and we would get calls
from across North America, so the US and Canada of
(11:34):
people hitting deers and moose, um and these animals. As
anybody who has been unfortunate enough to be involved with
this incident already knows, these animals can do massive amounts
of damage to a car. I'm not even joking, like
you think a flat tire is bad. There there goes
your windshield, your hood, your grill, your headlights. Uh. They
(11:58):
can do damage to things under the Yeah, it's a
big it's a big animal, definitely, with the size of
a moose. I can only only imagine. I only got
one or two moose calls from Canada. I nearly I
nearly hit a moose. I was in the I was
in the passenger seat when we nearly hit a moose
a Colarney, Canada. It was about nineteen somewhere around there.
(12:18):
We went on a camping trip after you know, graduation
from from school, from high school, and we're again Clarna, Canada.
We're gonna do like a canoeing camping type trip. Right.
You don't see anybody for a full week. We're way
back in the middle of nowhere on a gravel road,
a lot of us in the in the vehicle, you know,
the whole group of people, and it's late night. It's
totally black, pitch black out, you know, no moon, nothing
(12:39):
like that. It came not over hill or anything. We're
just going straight down the road. So it's not like
it's a surprise or anything. But the lights just weren't
effective enough, right, So we're in this it was like
a Ford minivan and again it's like midnight or whatever,
maybe one or whatever, and we're just flying down this
this gravel road and suddenly the driver just slams on
the brakes and we skid, skid straightforward, didn't skid off
(13:01):
the road or anything straightforward, and we end up about
four feet away from a baby moose, a young one.
You could tell it was young, but it was huge.
I mean it was looking right in the window of
the vehicle. You know, it's a giant all tall legs.
I mean, it's a moose. You didn't have those giant
horns or anything yet. It was still pretty young, but
it just kind of stood and stare at us and
then wandered on, you know, just kept on going across
(13:22):
the road like you know, what are we doing out
there in its environment, and it was scary because you know,
that could have been it. I mean, it would have
come through the windshield for sure, no doubt. So I
give credit to the driver for being alerted. You know,
one am when a moose is in front of you.
What you know what? This leads me to Scott and
this is a great segue into our information on the
(13:43):
performances of various cars in the moose test, because you
might be surprised by who who performs well and who
performs poor? Have you seen the list I've seen, I've
seen a couple of views. Well, I've got a big
surprise for you, and I will I think i'll just
lead with that, will be surprised with this now. So
I went to the Swedish magazine site that you know
(14:04):
that reviews these things, right this, Uh, I'm gonna try
the pronunciation. I'll give it a shot. How about that?
All right? The the the magazine and the publication that
does this thing. And it's a it's an online site
now most people get it online. I think it's called
Technicians Vowed and that means World of Technology. And again
I apologize for the pronunciation, but it means World of
(14:26):
Technology and English, and it is a it's a leading
motor magazine in Sweden and it features, um, you know,
automotive news, reviews, test drives, things like that of passenger cars,
and and publishes all these uh like new and used
car guides as well. Right, and they've been doing this
for a long long time. So they've been running this
test for a long time. And this is the this
is the publication that's that's famous for running the Moose test.
(14:48):
This is the one and uh, these numbers on this
list go back to about three and if you look
at the full list, which you can online, you can
find the full list. Um, they they've they've done hundreds
of vehicles at this point, and it goes all the
way through two thousand fourteen. They haven't done vehicles yet.
But I was surprised to see what comes out on
(15:09):
top on this lift ben because I printed out the
top twenty five and then also the bottom twenty or so.
We will not go through the whole list, but the
number one is a huge surprise. It is a get
ready for this. I'm a nt Citron Xantia Activa, which
is a V six powered vehicle. Citron is at the
(15:31):
very top of the list, and that is with get
this the second vehicle on the list. Just to give
you how an idea of how well this vehicle performed,
and I'll describe this in just a minute. The second
vehicle on the list is a a two thousand eight
Porsche seven GT three RS and it outperformed that vehicle
and then everything below that for about the first ten
(15:51):
is another Porsche model. How much was what about the
driver that was this guy in the Citron? I can
tell you this is this is why this vehicle so fast?
It was so fast and the speed that it went
through this uh the test before it did it spin
out or whatever? You know what failed? Then the speed
was fifty two point eight miles per hour and the
Porsche was only able to complete it in about fifty
(16:13):
one miles per hour before it spun out or hit
a cone or whatever. So I thought, why why is
the Citron from so fast? Right? And why is it
still It's still number one on the list even after
the cars have been tested, So why is it so fast?
It had at the time you gotta again think about
and now how long ago that was? It had a
(16:35):
computer controlled active suspension system which was said, this is amazing.
This is a system that was said to offer UM
roll free F one style cornering combined with what Sitron
called a legendary magic carpet ride hydra by hydro active suspension.
Now the hydro active suspension thing. I looked into that,
(16:57):
and that is a hydro pneumatic suspension that later licensed
to the likes of Rolls, Royce, Maserati, Pougeot, Mercedes Benz
in the military. So this this hydro pneumatic suspension from
Citron combined with um you know this uh what it
called the the computer controlled active suspension system. All that
(17:18):
combined led this vehicle to be almost completely flat through
the test. It was like it was like this amazing
handling sports car, but it was a sedan. That's strange.
But this is a perfect segue if I if I could, Yeah, sure,
I've got a little more I want to talk about.
But it's okay, fine, well, okay, well let's go. Let's
keep going with what you wanted to say, because I'm
(17:39):
just gonna pretend that I'll segue into that. Okay, Okay,
I'm so everybody listening, I'm seguating from that point earlier understood. Okay,
I got you, I got you, But I just want
to get this out there because my question was why
you know again, I answered that with the components that
were involved, right. So then later I was thinking, why
is the portion of g T three rs from tooth
(18:00):
is an eight still slower than run? I know, why?
Why is that? Why does that have sense? It doesn't
make any sense. So the answer is maybe because they're
not necessarily building cars to pass this specific test. I
am so glad you said that. Okay, is this leading
into what you wanted to say? That's part of it? Yeah,
please go ahead. No, no, I want you to go
ahead and hit it because I've got a bunch of
(18:21):
stuff and I feel like i'm talking to Oh, well,
you're you're never talking too much. The thing that's interesting
is that the Moose test is controversial because amongst carmakers,
not all cars are built to be able to perform
this sort of maneuver. Yeah, and they can perform the maneuver,
but they can't necessarily perform it at a world class
(18:41):
level exactly, and they won't get themselves to like the
top ten spots or something like that, where they can
actually publicize it. Right, So these would be otherwise world
class cars, to take that phrase, and I love it,
but they are not world class moose avoiders, which is
not there's not necessarily anything wrong with that. But regard
lost of how silly this might sound to some folks, Uh,
(19:02):
the reality of the situation is, Uh, this test has
done a lot for safety technology and innovation, but also
uh in some cases safety systems that like the Porsche
Mcon didn't do very well in the moose test, and
that's a brand new one, right, And they said that
(19:22):
it's because of the safety systems that they have for
breaking Oh I saw this it Uh, it's it locks
up one of the wheels right right, and therefore it
makes it slide, and that means that it fails the
test at that point, right right. Also from their perspective,
their engineers thought this was a great regulatory safety device.
(19:42):
So it is a safety device, but just maybe not
necessarily for avoiding moose right or whatever darts out in
front of the road. Now it performs better in other ways.
Sure that they have somehow waited differently than than the
moose tests, right, Okay, I get that. So there's thousands
of tests you can run on a vehicle and each
vehicle is going to excel in its own area. They're
going to perform better. And remember we talked about this,
(20:05):
I think in the past where I've been to to
ride and drive events where they're putting a you know,
Dodge Neon up against the Porsche of Boxer and they
and they play on the on the the favorable characteristics
of the Neon because it had a tighter turning radius.
I believe that the portrait Boxer was able to complete
one part of the test fast enough that it was
able to complete the entire course faster, and therefore they
(20:27):
could say the Neon, you know, triumphs over the Porsche
Boxer in this test. If you don't believe it, drive
it yourself. And and that was how they do it.
They marketing always angles for the best the best performance
right and whatever arena that may be, and by whichever
means exactly right, play with the stats, right, and you know,
mentioning stats. And can I just say this in the
(20:50):
top twenty five that I've got here on this list
of put in front of me, you know, between this
is just to be fair, I guess between the top one,
which is at Citron and the bottom here on my
list of twenty five. Uh, there's really only a seven
kilometer per hour difference, which is only about four and
a half miles per hour between number one and number
twenty five. And there's hundreds on this list, and you know,
(21:10):
towards the end of the list, it drops off considerably
the the poorest performer if you'd like to know, yes,
the poorest performer that they've that they've tested, and you
know the numbers they've they've dropped some of the things
off of this list. And I know they've done this
testing for a long long time. Um, they've dropped some
of the the results off of this list. Because when
you get to about the year two thousand, you can
(21:31):
sort this list, you know, by model, year, by maker,
by speed, you know all that. You can sort this
whole thing ever you want. Um, when you get to
about two thousand, they stopped publishing numbers, but they would
leave certain vehicles on, like they left the I think
they left the Ferrari Tester Rosa on there that they
tested from they left on um you know sits a
(21:51):
round that I mentioned and some other kind of I'm
gonna call them oddball vehicles that they tested. Just I
don think it's just out of interest, you know, people
would look that up. Uh, the worst performing vehicle on
this list, which comes in at exactly half of the
speed of the Citron on the you know, at the
top of the list. Can I guess you can take
a guess? Um, do you think I have a good
(22:11):
chance of getting it? So that means it's not the
Jeep Grand Cherokee. It is not, but they're pretty low. Yeah,
they I know that they had a poor performance. Um
is it the can Go New? Is it the Dacia?
It is not? All right, I've had enough. Alright. This
is something that it may not surprise you when you
hear it. It's a it's a reliant Rialto. Now reliant rialto.
(22:35):
If you remember, this is a three wheeled vehicle. This
is the first thing that clocks because and and it's
an a delta configuration. So it's the one with the
single wheel on the front, two wheels in the back,
and it steers with that front wheel. And this is
the one that you know, top gear. I think they
did a reliant robin maybe or something like that where
you continually rolls over. Why would you put that in
a moose test. Clearly it's not going to do that. Well,
(22:57):
clearly it's not, and it didn't. It's the worst performing
vehicle the list by a by a wide margin. Um.
It comes in at forty two and a half kilometers
per hour, which is a speed of just point four
miles per hour for us here in the United States. Um. Again,
that's half the speed of the Citron, you know, at
the very top of the list, and everything else falls
somewhere in between that. Now, let's let's talk about just
(23:20):
a couple of the innovations that came from this came
from this testing, right, you know, there's stuff like going
all the way back to UH the journalist Robert Collin himself.
There's stuff like the electronics stability program, which would not
have been UH standard for the Mercedes Benz A class
(23:41):
if it were not for this test. And there are
also other Um, there are also other innovations, almost all
concerned with safety, like reinforced windshields where to place the
A pillar in a vehicle? UH. These prevent serious injury
or death in many types of collisions, including one with
a moose. And ladies and gentlemen, I think we're coming
(24:02):
to the part of the show now that we've all
been waiting for, by which I mean at least you
and I have Scott. Uh, this is an avoidance test,
but this is also a crash test. That's right, This
is this is highly unusual. This is my my one
more thing one alright, Ben, So, as you may have guessed,
(24:27):
this is kind of a big deal in Sweden, right,
Oh yeah, alright, So the Swedish auto manufacturers have actually
built a moose crash test dummy. You've heard it, right, Yeah,
that's incredible, isn't. I mean they they've they've bought or
they've built a dummy, a crash test dummy that is
weighted and sized and everything just as a moose would be.
And it makes perfect sense to me. I completely understand
(24:48):
why they would do that. All right. So here's the
here's the story on this. The Swedish National Road and
Transport Research Institute have developed a moose crash test dummy
that they call Mooses, which is a funny mooses, and
the dummy, which is made with a similar weight, center
of gravity and dimensions to a live moose, is used
to recreate realistic moose collisions. And I can completely see
(25:11):
where they're coming from on this. I mean I totally
get it right because I've watched now these are just
so tired of these unrealistic moose collisions. Uh, that's right.
And you know what, just as a side note, I've
got one more thing about the moose too here. But um,
just as a side note, Australian car manufacturers use kangaroo
crash test dummies for the similar purpose because they have,
you know, kangaroo issues on their roads. So so why
(25:33):
not create a kangaroo crash test dummy because that's what
they encounter occasionally. Um. Alright, So the one last thing
on this, this moose situation here, this moose crash test dummy.
If you think it's not serious business, I would like
you to watch this YouTube video. I'm going to tell
you the exact name of the YouTube video and you
will be astounded with what you see because these are
particularly brutal collisions with moose as you've mentioned. Alright, alright,
(25:57):
So the video, if you want to see one, is
called vt that's the industry that that does these tests
of these tests v t I car versus ELK slash
Moose crash test and the vehicle that they crash test
is a Volvo V seventy estates, so it's a station
wagon of course. And when you see this moose crash
(26:18):
test dummy that they have hanging on this apparatus, you know,
the long legs and the body and everything. You know,
it's it doesn't have a head or anything like that
or no tail um. But when they crash this vehicle
into it, this this Volvo, you would not believe the
destruction that happens with this thing, because you've got to
think that the legs are so tall that when the
body comes back down, he comes back down right on
(26:40):
the windshield, right onto just about where the middle of
the windshield is, and the moose remains there in that place.
You know, it rolls a little bit, but not much,
and even on a Volvo, which you and I know
is a solid, solid built car. And safety is I mean,
it really hit the number one, absolutely, the number one
the number one concern Volvo is safety, passenger safety. And
(27:02):
this absolutely caves in a Volvo station wagon windshield. And uh,
I mean it does a lot of structural damage as well.
These are these are a serious, a serious problem I
guess up in that part of the world. Um and
I thought, well, maybe they're going way too fast. You know,
maybe maybe what I'm watching is kind of a an
exaggeration of what happens. Right what It turns out that
(27:25):
the test was conducted at seventy kilos per hour, which
is just forty three miles per hour. Uh so, forty
three miles per hour, I think about that. You're you're
doing a lot faster than that on a lot of
uh you know, backcountry roads wherever, Like where I encountered
that moose. I'm sure we are going faster than forty three,
even those gravel road. But forty three is is enough
to cause significant structural damage to even a very strong,
(27:49):
brand new vehicle. So you know, we're caution here. Just
just take note of any moose in the area, take
care and be aware. And just one more quick thing, Ben, Yeah,
I would just encourage people to watch it because it
really is an eye opener. So so if you can,
if you have a chance, just to take three minutes
and watch that video, well worth it. And that's a
(28:10):
great point, Scott, because while again, while it seems like
such a a funny thing, and we clearly admit that
there's some hilarious stuff about this, and I still think
a moose crash test dummy is pretty funny. This is
also necessary, and this is part of the continual experimentation
and testing that we see whenever a vehicle comes out.
(28:32):
But now we want to know what you think. Have
you ever been unfortunate enough to hit a deer, a moose,
a large mammal? Can I tell you something? Yeah, this
is maybe my final, one last thing. I keep coming
up with more, right, yeah, Uh, my stepmother's father one
time came over a hill I think he's in northern Michigan.
Came over hill on a pickup truck and there was
(28:53):
a pig in the road. And you wouldn't think that
a pig would do a lot of damage right to
a car, But this is a a low, heavy built animal, right,
and it did a significant amount of damage to it,
probably more than a deer, because when you hit a
deer that you know it kind of goes up and over.
A pig stays right where it is and it was
a terrible accident, and you just wouldn't think of things
like that. But like, think about the moose. I mean again,
(29:16):
where it contacts the vehicle, that's all critical, and I
don't know these would What would happen if hed a giraffe?
I guess it would be damaging to the vehicle behind you. Yeah,
you get kicked out of the zoos for sure. They
won't let you take your cars in. I just want
to be clear with everybody. All right, I have I
have no more one last things. All right? Uh, well,
(29:36):
we are going to head out. Lady and gentlemen, that's
our time. We hope that you enjoyed learning about this
test as much as we did, and we would like
to hear your suggestions for stories that we should cover
in the future. Uh, what's the weird car stuff in
your neck of the woods. And also, if you're listening
to this and you did hit a large animal at
(29:58):
some point, we're glad you're okay. We hope your car
made it and we'd love to hear this story. So
hit us up. We're on Facebook and Twitter where car
stuff hs W on both of those and you'll find
some cool things on there. If you want to check
out every podcast we ever made, because iTunes only gives
you what the first three or something. Yeah, so if
(30:20):
you want to see all six hundred plus, you can
go to our website, Car Stuff Show dot com and
if you want to send us an email directly, love
to hear from you. Our addresses, our stuff and how
stuff work dot com. For more on this and thousands
of other topics, is that how stuff works dot com.
Let us know what you think, send an email to
(30:41):
podcast at how stuff works dot com
CarStuff News
Hosts And Creators
Scott Benjamin
Ben Bowlin
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