Gadgetory

now two major good things happen when your roof is strong and stays intact first of all the roof doesn't intrude and injure passengers or kill them inside the vehicle but secondly the belt the airbags the windows and the windshield have a strong base so they can stay in place and do their job keeping you from leaving the car which is a big problem in rollers only about 2% of the nation's roughly 9 million annual car accidents are rollovers but they typically account for an astonishing 33 percent of fatalities so say hello to a tougher roof standard now new federal standards for roof rollover strength were passed in 2009 they started phasing in September of 2012 and full phase in across the entire fleet of new vehicles sold in the US as of 2017 model year cars now before these new standards that kicked in in 2012 we go back to 1973 for the last time roof crushed specs were set and back then the federal standard was only that it had to withstand one and a half times the weight of the vehicle today that's a poor rating that would not even be a passing grade now the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety Awards those coveted rollover standards based on a test where they come right here with a big machine that tries to deflect this part of the roof five inches total deflection the question is how much weight does it take that's where they come up with a ratio based on the cars weight to get a good rating which is the best that has to be a four to one ratio in other words the roof can support four times the cars weight of an impact now there are some downsides to all this additional roof strength performance a couple trivial ones and that is there's an estimate that it costs maybe fifty four dollars more in your car's MSRP to create all this stronger structure and sixteen to sixty-two dollars in additional fuel consumption due to some added weight those are small numbers but there is a bigger concern and that is this as these pillars get stronger they're getting thicker the airbags that are in them the padding here for federal head impact standards and the increasing slope for aerodynamics you've got a visible University at Michigan that a study that found these increasingly thick pillar designs make invisible for a substantial time a pedestrian who could be in your path during a typical left turn at an intersection let's say in the EU such outward visibility is regulated in the u.s. it's not the IIHS has roof crush ratings by car model on its site and since these new standards are being phased in it pays to double check so bottom line when you look at your car next time and see the roof and the pillars and think you're just seeing something to keep the rain out and keep the glass in place mm-hmm you're looking at some pretty serious engineering that has come a long way in a few years towards saving your life