I find the Epoxy substitute very interesting - I feel like there could be a lot of uses for an epoxy strong enough to work in Carbon Fiber applications but can be removed with a chemical process at room temperature. Re-enterable potting compound? Fixturing material for machining?
And the epoxies used in CF are not. Not to mention that melting plastics with solvents isn’t some environmental free ride. Now you just really messy and toxic soup to deal with.
Yes. There are many vehicles which earn the highest rating from IIHS. It's more useful to think of vehicles which can't pass every test as deficient; except for new tests, which are designed so that most vehicles fail the year they introduce the test. Most vehicles start passing new tests after three model years.
My understanding is that these companies were gaming the benchmarks, but one possible justification is that many vehicles have only one occupant: the driver. Adding weight and reinforcements for a seating position that's typically unoccupied may seem at least partially unjustifiable.
Not all crash test dummies are 50th percentile males[1]. In the United States:
Regulatory Frontal: 50th male in front-left and front-right, or 5th female in front-left and front-right
Regulatory Side, struck by SUV: 50th male
Regulatory Side, struck by pole: 50th male
NCAP Frontal: 50th male in front-left, 5th female in front-right
NCAP Side, struck by SUV: 50th male in front-left, 5th female in rear-left
NCAP Side, struck by pole: 50th male
As you can see, most tests are done with male dummies, and almost no females dummies are drivers. Fortunately, there's money that's just been allocated by Congress for doing more female dummy testing.
[1] Also important to note that, at least in the United States, the percentiles were determined in the 80s and Americans have gotten fatter.
Modern vehicles have seatbelt pre-tensioners to get drivers as close to the tested crash position as quickly as possible. Some vehicles also move the seat position before a crash to get you closer to the test position as well.
My 2019 Volvo XC40 pre-tensions the seatbelts and moves the seats like this.
I didn’t know it was a feature until I nearly got rear ended waiting on a left turn and the car went into rear impact protection mode. (Other driver veered off at the last second). It was quite impressive tbh.
Advanced versions of systems like this can report crash severity to help first responders make triage decisions. Advanced crash notification systems have clear benefits: if every vehicle/driver had an ACN system, an additional ~2,700 vehicle occupants who need a Level I or II trauma center could receive it annually in the United States, and ~162,000 annually would not be sent to a Level I or II trauma center who didn't need it [1].
Correct me if this is what you meant by "talked with the NHTSA", but another place you can submit information is to the NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation (ODI): https://www.nhtsa.gov/report-a-safety-problem#index , which is the group that forces automakers to do recalls.
