Female dummies are turning out to have some serious influence in Detroit.
For years the auto industry and federal safety agencies conducted crash tests with dummies modeled on males only. Now dummies modeled on females have joined their ranks; and data gleaned from them is beginning to ifluence everything from vehicle design to safety ratings to consumer purchasing decisions.
Jack Jensen, a General Motors Technical Fellow and group manager for GM's Anthropomorphic Test Device lab in Milford, Michigan, points to some 200 dummies, each costing as much as $200,000. "We have all different shapes and sizes," he says, "about 20 different types." They allow GM to simulate big and small men, big and small women, children of various ages, infants, even whole families.
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