Sept. 30 2004 © 2004 HalfBakery
Future News Service.
Stephanie Simpson of Bel Air,
California (a town known for its
unpaved roads and steep terrain) was
irate when she learned just what had
happened to her last week when she
took her eyes off the road for mere
moments. She was trying
to adjust
her child's DVD player in the back
seat of her Lincoln Navigator when,
"It's like I told Jake, he and I were,
like, on the phone when it
happened?, this little bitty car
appeared out of NOWHERE and
slammed on the brakes, instead of
absorbing my impact, like the other
little cars always used to, it was all
hunkered down and suddenly the
kids and I are, like, sailing over the
little car! I was all, 'This is scary!' and
the kids were all, 'Yeah mom, fly the
Navigator!' and then we came
crashing down on the road ahead of
the little car. All the axels or
whatever they are called, got busted
and my beautiful Navigator just slid
around on its, like, stomach till we
stopped. It really freaked me out.
And all I could think of is just how
rude that was for them not to, you
know, 'take it.'"
Ms. Simpson, a recovering pilates
instructor, later learned that she had
just encountered Auto-Judotech's
SUV-deflector technology. A
merger of an overbuilt roof-rack, a
pair of home garage ramps and a
soap box racer's brakes, this retrofit
for lighter cars is "evening up the
score" in asymmetric two-vehicle
collisions. Chief designer Akira
Johansen of the Berkeley, California,
based company, explains how this
ugly but effective aftermarket kit
works:
"At the rear of the protected vehicle
are a pair of ramps that, in the event
of a rear-end collision, guide the
other vehicle up and onto the pair of
fore and aft rails that protect the car
from the now overhead SUV. These
are treated with Teflon so the SUV
can gently slide forward and drop off
the front. This last stage, "shedding,"
in the lingo of the company, allows
the bulk of the energy in the
careening SUV to remain with that
vehicle and move forward of the
protected vehicle.
To minimize damage to the protected
car, part of the impact of the SUV is
translated into a 10-inch by 20-inch
friction pad that drops between the
two ramps and, while the SUV is in
contact with the ramps, dramatically
slows down the protected vehicle and
improves the "shedding"
performance.
When asked to elaborate on early
problems with handling while the
friction pad was down, Johansen said,
"These characteristics were improved
by moving the pad rearward. Now it
is like deploying a parachute, like a
drag racer, really smooth and even
pressure." In the current
configuration it spews a stinky
smoke of burned rubber, "definitely a
boost to the user experience now... it
is soooo cool!" Johansen, 37 and
inexplicably single, enthused.
All is not sweetness and light,
however. Johansen was unable to
reassure those concerned with a rash
of after-after market adaptations
that alter the relationship between
the rails to induce a "spiral" to the
vehicle during the so called
"shedding" stage... "We don't endorse
this untested adaptation but are
interested in any video people might
have for our internal website,
because it is so very, very wrong to
do that."
Henry Honda (no relation to the
auto-maker(s)) of the National Right
Of Way Mediation Group (a non-
partisan traffic think tank) is
concerned about this escalation in
the battle between the Davids and
Goliaths of the nation's roadways. "I
studied Judo a bit in my younger
days and I see the theory here.
However, I do not see how the Auto-
Judotech folks are going to meet the
challenges posed the next class of
SUVs with their built-in armor
piercing hooks jutting out from the
underlying truck rails." He cited the
missing crumple zones in most SUVs
and their need for other vehicles (and
presumably passengers) to "take up
the slack." Just where it will all end is
anyone's guess.
When asked if the SUV Deflector
worked on so called "big-rigs"
Johansen grew quiet and, upon
reflection admitted, "We are a small
company and our testing budget
would not allow us to buy an 18-
wheeler to trash. Plus we use a very
expensive fembot to drive the SUV-
deflector protected car. None of us
want to risk squashing her." He did
admit that the steep upward angle of
the deflector was likely to decouple
the trailer from the tractor. Computer
simulations were, in his words,
"gruesome for all concerned."