What is the Toyota Total Human Model for Safety?

Everyone has seen videos of crash test dummies being rocketed toward a wall behind the wheel of a minivan or sedan. Whether in the commercial for a vehicle whose crash tests went really well, or a YouTube video mocking how poorly a different vehicle did, crash test dummy videos have been around for a long time. But did you know that there are also digital crash tests performed by virtual crash test dummies? That is what the Toyota Total Human Model for Safety is, and recently the automotive manufacturer added new features to Version 4 of the THUMS software.

Child Models added to Toyota THUMS Software

The Total Human Model for Safety, better known as THUMS, utilizes virtual software to simulate car crashes on the computer. The software is able to predict just how serious certain injuries could be for different people, and rather than being used to determine how safe a vehicle is, it’s actually used by those designing the safety features that go into the vehicle – like airbags and seatbelts. THUMS is even used in motorsports like NASCAR.

The big news surrounding the latest version of THUMS, which will be going on sale later this year, is that Toyota added three different child models to the lineup of virtual crash dummies. The three new models represent the average physical appearance for children aged 10, 6 and 3 years old. The new dummies will come in both a passenger version as well as pedestrian versions, allowing even more detailed analysis of possible injuries.

THUMS was created in the year 2000, and has gone through tons of improvements and enhancements since then. Much like the continued upgrades and updates to safety features in actual vehicles, programs like THUMS will continue to advance as technology does, helping us move toward the ultimate goal of eliminating injury and fatalities on our roads, and we can’t wait.