Driving Made Safer For Women!

A more accurate female crash-test dummy may finally make driving safer for women.

For decades, automakers have relied on so-called “female” crash-test dummies that stand 4’11”, weigh 108 pounds, and date back to the 1970s. Even worse: carmakers weren’t actually required to use them, until now.

The Department of Transportation announced yesterday that it’s updating federal rules and introducing a new dummy modeled on the average woman: THOR-05F. (And yes, the name definitely sounds like it was chosen by a committee of men.)

Though THOR-05F has been available for years, it somehow took regulators more than four decades to acknowledge that the average woman weighs more than 110 pounds. The DOT says the new model will “enable better assessment of brain, thorax, abdominal, pelvic, and lower leg injury risk for small female occupants.”

That seems…pretty essential. It’s about time! But do they get paid less than the male dummies do? 😉

Lana Backman