[imagesource: Volvo]

Typically, when a drop test is performed, it’s usually on a new iPhone or smartphone to test its durability when you miss your pocket or accidentally kick it off the couch (guilty).

The latest one was performed on the iPhone 12, and the results were impressive. Apple really outdid itself this time.

Cars aren’t usually dropped from great heights, but as one of the carmakers to produce what some have claimed are the safest vehicles in the world, Volvo decided to do give it a shot in their most insane and impressive crash test to date.

According to Autoblog, they took 10 cars, raised them roughly 100 feet in the air using cranes, and then watched as they plummeted to the ground.

Why? The logic is pretty sound:

For one, this kind of test is dramatically more severe and extreme than anything Volvo can simulate in ordinary crash testing.

Volvo says it re-creates the kind of impact you might see in the most extreme of crashes, such as when a car hits a semi-truck at high speed or takes a severe impact on its side. In these kinds of accidents, there’s a much higher likelihood that the occupants will be critically injured.

Observe:

More from Volvo, including interviews with the folks running the test and video from inside one of the cars as it drops to the ground:

Volvo performed the test with Swedish rescue services onsite, because a crash like this would likely require extraction specialists using hydraulic rescue tools like the ‘Jaws of Life’ to reach trauma victims as quickly as possible.

The likelihood of someone surviving an impact such as this is increased if rescue teams are able to get them medical attention within an hour – or ‘the golden hour’ as they call it.

Immediately after the drops, the rescue workers went to town on the cars, gathering vast amounts of data and learning along the way. This will help Volvo develop safer cars and also help rescue workers develop better, quicker ways to extricate people.

Rescue workers usually have to experiment on much older vehicles sitting in junkyards, so the data they collected from the crash simulation, using new cars, is invaluable.

Volvo will be compiling the data collected into a report which they will make available to rescue teams across the globe.

It’s tests like these that set the automaker apart from other brands on the market.

[source:autoblog]