Page 9 - Bloomberg Businessweek-October 29, 2018

Bloomberg Businessweek October 29, 2018

At first glance, Humanetics Innovative Solutions Inc. looks is that dummies, unlike humans, don’t die, though a decade
like it has a pretty sweet business model. The suburban ago the industry almost did.
Detroit company is the world’s largest maker of crash-test
dummies, the steel-and-vinyl humanoids stuffed with elec- In Volvo Car Group’s cavernous crash facility in Gothenburg,
tronics that gauge how a car crash could injure a human Sweden, eight banks of 4,000-watt lamps shine on a V60 sta-
body. The company enjoys a global market share exceeding tion wagon as technicians scurry about making final prepa-
70 percent, and its dummies can cost as much as $1 million rations for a side-impact crash test. A bank of electronic
Business for Dummies Two dummies wait, one in the front seat,
measuring equipment rests on the hood.
the other directly behind.
The techs disperse. The garage is silent
but for a voice on an intercom counting
apiece. Regulators in the U.S. and other countries effec- down from 10. At zero, a flat barrier accelerates toward the
tively require Humanetics customers to buy at least some car at 31 mph and T-bones it. The scene is placid one second
of its products. and then suddenly, jarringly violent—as in a real collision.
With a setup like that, you might say, even a dummy could Then the serious work begins, much of it involving the
make a fortune. This makes Humanetics Chief Executive collection and analysis of data from the sensors inside the
Officer Christopher O’Connor laugh, though for a different dummies: Did a rib deflect far enough that it could have frac-
reason than you might think. He’d much rather discuss the tured? Might the intrusion of the driver’s door have punc-
implications of 3D printers and driverless cars than how tured an internal organ? Volvo runs as many as 10 full-scale
Humanetics, or any dummy maker, turns a profit. “I’ve said crash tests a week, including head-on collisions, lateral and
to myself, if I had $10 million, I wouldn’t invest in this busi- angular impacts, and outdoor tests in which vehicles are run
ness,” O’Connor says. “I love it, but the reality is, you’re into a roadside ditch to see how the bodies—that is, the dum-
not going to make a ton of money. The margins are always mies’ bodies—are tossed around inside.
going to be tight.” The company owns about 100 dummies, some brand-
The business of making and selling crash dummies is odd, new, some as old as 40. A number of Volvo’s Humanetics 63
and not only because it involves faceless mannequins acting dummies represent a 5-foot-9-inch, 172-pound male, which
as proxies for the mangled and the dead. Dummy makers at one point was a statistically average man. (Said man is
spend years and millions of dollars developing products that now pushing 200.) Volvo also has dummies that stand in
customers profess to admire but decline to buy. Vehicles and for larger men, small women, and children of various ages.
drivers have changed dramatically, but the model of dummy Then there’s a replica moose—collisions with Bullwinkle are
used in many government-required crash tests has been common in Sweden—that resembles an oil drum tipped side-
around for four decades. The industry sells a mere 200 to ways and propped on four stilts.
250 dummies in a decent year and generated $111 million Some of the early crash dummies, in the mid-20th century,
in revenue globally in 2016, according to market- research were human cadavers flung down elevator shafts and hogs
company Technavio. impaled on steering columns. There were live humans, too.

The economics of the weirdest niche in the car safety industry

By Bryan Gruley Photographs by Lydon French

At the Humanetics headquarters in Farmington Hills, In 1954, U.S. Air Force Colonel John Stapp, a physician study-
Mich., and its factory in Huron, Ohio, cubicles and work- ing how deceleration affected military pilots in crashes, rode
tables are littered with flesh-colored dummy heads, feet, and a rocket sled at 632 mph on a New Mexico test track. He didn’t
hands, and parts carts hold shiny aluminum elbows, knees, hit anything, but blood filled his eyes as vessels burst under
and clavicles. They’ll be assembled by some of Humanetics’ the pressure. His research caught the attention of auto makers;
750 employees into anthropomorphic devices of various later he founded the annual Stapp Car Crash Conference,
genders and ages. Information gleaned from dummies has which still contributes to crash-test development.
helped automakers develop air bags, advanced seat belts, The U.S. highway fatality rate in the 1950s ranged from
penetration-resistant glass, and energy- absorbing frames. 5 to 7 deaths per 1 million miles traveled. Autos were built
Dummy performance in crash tests is central to the popu- with stiff exteriors that transferred the deadly energy of
lar vehicle safety rating, which influences sales. Given all a collision to their occupants. Interiors were loaded with
this, it seems like Humanetics’ continual improvement of sharp doorknobs, radio buttons, rearview mirrors, and
its product ought to produce robust growth. The problem other dangerous protrusions. Ralph Nader’s Unsafe at Any