New project: Towards vehicle safety for everyone
For decades, vehicle safety has largely been developed and evaluated using models representing an average male occupant. But people come in different shapes and sizes, and safety systems need to protect everyone.
The new project Viva Plus aims to improve road safety by enabling sex-neutral virtual testing in vehicle safety development. The project will establish an open library of qualified and certified Human Body Models (HBMs), making it possible to evaluate safety performance using both female and male representations.
By improving how injuries are predicted across a broader share of the population, the project can support better-informed safety requirements, design decisions and safety measures, ultimately contributing to improved protection for all road users.
The project is led by Chalmers University of Technology and funded by the Swedish Transport Administration’s Skyltfonden program. It runs from January 2026 to September 2027.
