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As Advanced Crash Avoidance Technologies (ACATs) such as Forward Collision Warning (FCW), Crash Imminent Braking Systems and other advanced technologies continue to be developed, the need for full-scale test methodologies which can minimize hazards to test personnel and damage to equipment has rapidly increased. The challenge of evaluating such ACAT systems is twofold. First, the evaluation system must be able to deliver a potential Collision Partner (CP) reliably and precisely along a trajectory which would ultimately result in a crash in a variety of configurations, such as rear-ends, head-ons, crossing paths, and sideswipes. Second, and more importantly, the collision partner must not pose a substantial physical risk to the test driver, other test personnel, equipment, or to test vehicles in the event that the collision is not avoided.

The Advanced Crash Avoidance Technologies (ACAT) program initiated by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration had two major overall objectives. These were to develop a standardized Safety Impact Methodology (SIM) tool to evaluate the effectiveness of advanced technologies in avoiding and mitigating specific types of vehicle crashes; and to develop and demonstrate objective tests that are used in the SIM to verify the safety impact of a real system. Honda and Dynamic Research Inc. (DRI) had been developing and applying such SIMs for several years and had a Cooperative Agreement with NHTSA to further develop a SIM in order to determine the feasibility of developing estimates of effectiveness for specific not-yet-deployed safety technologies in the absence of data from real world or field operational tests, and linking it to the results from objective tests.