T CRASH TESTING he engineers at Audi’s recently opened €100m (US$108m) Vehicle Safety Center in Ingolstadt, Germany, began 2024 with an immense sense of achievement. The facility is nestled in the OEM’s new in-campus technology park near its headquarters, and came online in October last year. The team spent the final few months of 2023 commissioning everything and getting all its ducks in a row. As Dr Oliver Schlicht, the company’s manager of vehicle safety test and validation development, explains, “We opened in September, then in October and November, tested all the equipment to give the final okay to our suppliers. These were tests of the rigs and of cars. Since December, we’ve been in the ramp-up phase, officially working on new vehicle projects.” Schlicht moved to his current role around three years ago, having been a team member at Audi for 25 years. For him, seeing through the development of the Vehicle Safety Center was an honor. “It was heritage to finish it,” as he puts it. It’s been a steep learning curve for all involved, but everyone rose to the challenge. “It was hard,” the Audi veteran states. “We are proud we were able to do it in two months as [this process] can take longer. We have not only had to ensure that the systems are working but also learn how to operate them and adapt to the new possibilities and to the new [crash test] needs as well.” Working closely alongside Schlicht is Martin Friedrichsen, head of vehicle safety development, who emphasizes that the setup process was a team effort. He adds that the smooth commissioning was purely thanks to his crew’s savvy planning and a rigorous pre-test of the facility in June and July 2023, which provided a solid foundation to work from. specialists are based at the complex 110 ABOVE: The 50 x 50m crash arena at the Vehicle Safety Center is a pillar-free space LEFT: To ensure accuracy, the team works closely with external crash test partners to correlate results. With the additional capacity, a large portion of testing will be brought in-house Never a dull day Life moves quickly for crash analysts as each year brings new regulations and targets Safety development teams are busier than ever and the pressure continues to mount. Thanks to its size and facilities, the new complex is exceptionally versatile – an essential precondition for a successful crash testing operation. Its design and features also streamline the entire process, which will ultimately enable the team to carry out assessments more quickly. This will allow them to perform more tests, facilitate a bigger range of tests and provide the capability to recreate intricate scenarios – which is a game-changer for Audi. “With the high volume of requests there is to fulfill, we may still use external facilities, but we can now perform a greater variety of tests and do so flexibly,” Dr Oliver Schlicht notes. Adds Martin Friedrichsen, “The number of crash tests can increase, then decrease and then increase again due to evolution in product cycles, so we need room to breathe.” Furthermore, regular alterations to global consumer ratings systems to ensure an even focus on all aspects of safety mean there is an ever-expanding diversity of analyses to cover, Friedrichsen concludes. “We continue to build on this,” comments Friedrichsen. “In 2023, we had to do an all-time-high number of crash tests, not only internally but also using our crash test partners. This is partly due to Audi’s 2024 product offensive: we give the final release for every vehicle, so it was necessary to be producing crash tests with reliable, accurate results quickly.” Lights, camera, action The OEM’s crash testing history goes back to 1937 when it began conducting its own crash evaluations at the Golmberg near Potsdam in Germany. Gradually activities were moved over to Ingolstadt and the crash testing facilities were augmented in various ways. However, www.AutomotiveTestingTechnologyInternational.com 44 MARCH 2024