The history behind the design, building, and testing of an advanced automotive crash recorder is related. The program produced a reasonably accurate and reliable device which records and stores two axes of horizontal acceleration data experienced by a vehicle during a crash. A target cost of fifty dollars per unit in quantities of 50,000 units and ease of installation were other design requirements that were met. In addition, the program tasks generated (1) a device to retrieve the recorded data, (2) a minicomputer system to establish a crash recorder data bank, and (3) an implementation plan.
Abstract