Cars would be set up with crash test dummies and controlled by remote control. Many people would stand in a room with windows overlooking the crash test area and watch the cars they were controlling as they crashed into each other and the variety of obstacles in the area.

On the other end, the folks who normally monitor crash test results would be recieving all the readings from the dummies.

This would test the safety of cars in every possible collision scenario because they would be set up by actual drivers (kids without a drivers liscence would still be able to participate)

Meanwhile, the players would have the joy of wrecking each others cars and letting out their anger.

The activity would have a limited number of participants, but would hardly be a big cost seeing as the cars would already be wrecked in standard crash tests.
-- jellyfisherman, Jun 22 2008

http://www.thenaked...ent/news/news/1012/ [hippo, Jun 23 2008]

MMORPG?

{Massively Multiplayer Offline Role-Playing Game}
-- phoenix, Jun 23 2008


/This would test the safety of cars in every possible collision scenario because they would be set up by actual drivers (kids without a drivers liscence would still be able to participate)/

Wouldn't the car(s) be rendered immobile after just a few, random crash scenarios? Not very useful data, unless you _happen_ to discover a glaringly bad crash scenario. Even then, how would the scenario be recorded? All you'd have is the dummy impact data, not the crash scenario data.

This is essentially why drunk monkeys are not released into a research laboratories in order to advance the science in question.
-- Texticle, Jun 23 2008


// drunk monkeys are not released into a research laboratories //

You haven't met many Ph.D. students, have you ?
-- 8th of 7, Jun 23 2008


//drunk monkeys are not released into a research laboratories // - yes they are! - (see link)
-- hippo, Jun 23 2008


//how would the scenario be recorded?//

Wouldn't black boxes (like flight recorders) fix this part of the problem?
-- pertinax, Jun 23 2008


How do you test the black boxes ?
-- 8th of 7, Jun 23 2008


If my laundry marker doesn't show up on them, then they're probably black enough.
-- pertinax, Jun 23 2008


//how would the scenario be recorded?// With coffee spoons?
-- 4whom, Jun 23 2008


//drunk monkeys// this brings up a good point. alcoholic bevarages should be provided before the game. "Virtual drunk driver" would also teach valuable lessons to teenagers about the dangers of drunk driving.
-- jellyfisherman, Jun 23 2008


//teach valuable lessons to teenagers // that was supposed to come off as at least a little sarcastic, if it didn't seem that way
-- jellyfisherman, Jun 24 2008


Unfortunately, a single crash invalidates future tests on that car, as it is expected that people won't drive around too many wrecked cars without getting them repaired first.
-- Voice, Jun 24 2008


The idea sounds like a lot of fun, but from an engineering perspective the data gained would probably not be very useful.
-- darren-b, Jun 27 2008



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