The automotive landscape is shifting, and with it comes a hefty challenge—literally. The rise of electric vehicles (EVs), celebrated for their eco-friendliness, has brought an unintended consequence: their significant weight. This has sparked concerns about the adequacy of America’s guardrail systems, which may not be robust enough to handle the heft of modern EVs, posing potential risks to both civilians and the military.
Researchers at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln have put these worries to the test, pretty spectacularly. In a controlled crash test, a Rivian R1T truck, topping the scales at roughly 7,000 lbs, was driven into a railing at 60 mph. The effect was startling—the vehicle crashed through the barrier with scarcely a drop in speed. This isn’t only about the Rivian; a Tesla Model 3 also displayed frightening behavior in a similar test, raising the guardrail and slipping below it.
The problem isn’t isolated to the sheer weight of these cars, which may be up to 50 percent heavier than their gas-powered equivalents. EVs also have lower centers of gravity, resulting to unanticipated behaviors that might catch guardrail designers off-guard. Cody Stolle, deputy director of the Midwest Roadside Safety Facility, stressed the necessity of solving this problem, adding, “As the percentage of EVs on the road increases, the proportion of run-off-road crashes involving EVs will increase, as well.”
The implications of these findings are far-reaching. Annually, run-off-road crashes account for thousands of fatalities on American highways. Given that EVs are involved in these accidents at comparable rates and speeds as internal combustion vehicles, they could exert significantly more energy on roadside barriers, potentially leading to more severe outcomes.
The U.S. military shares these safety concerns, viewing them through the lens of national security. The fear is that EVs could be weaponized to breach barriers protecting sensitive locations. Genevieve Pezzola, a civil engineering researcher at the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center, highlighted the importance of understanding any potential risks to the nation’s security measures.
For highway planners, the answer isn’t as basic as just increasing barriers. A compromise must be achieved where obstacles are tough enough to stop a 7,000-pound EV without being so stiff as to cause severe damage to lighter cars. Stolle notes that this is the objective for the university’s testing: to obtain the essential data to create new systems that can be assessed and validated by full-scale crash testing.
The path ahead is clear: as EVs continue to gain pace, the infrastructure must develop to maintain safety for all road users. It’s a tough task, but one that must be tackled with ingenuity and haste. The experiments undertaken by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln serve as a key first step towards a safer future on the roads, where the advantages of electric cars may be experienced without sacrificing the safety of the public and the security of the country.
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Shocking Test Of 7,000-LB Rivian R1T Destroying Guardrails Has Army Worried
Shocking Test Of 7,000-LB Rivian R1T Destroying Guardrails Has Army Worried
A Rivian R1T blew through steel guardrails, reflecting safety experts’ warnings about heavy vehicles and even heavier EVs
