Safety tests performed on new cars include both the frontal and offset-frontal collision tests (which roughly replicate hitting a car head-on, and hitting it in the more common left-headlight-to-right-headlight crash often seen in intersections), several varieties of side crash test, rollover tests, and evading a moose.
Yeah, that last one…
It’s not an official government test. It comes from Sweden’s Teknikens Värld (Technology World, if your Swedish is rusty), and doesn’t involve an actual moose. Editors, instead, drive a fully-loaded vehicle through an S-shaped obstacle course, theoretically mimicking the movements a driver would need to make to avoid a 1,500-pound member of the deer family that suddenly appeared in a traffic lane. It happens.
The 2020 moose-avoidance exams are over, and a few prominent failures have emerged, including the Toyota RAV4 Prime, Mitsubishi Outlander, and Volvo XC40 Recharge. TV specifically called out the Toyota for sliding into oncoming traffic lanes, a rarity in test results.
Keep an eye on this space, though. The RAV4 similarly failed the 2019 tests, and, in response, Toyota rolled out a special moose-themed update to the SUVs stability control system – after which it passed the test.
