Lego crash test: Real better than digital 🎥

The video first shows the 2017 test and then provides impressive scenes from the current Lego crash test.

Digital is good, real is better
To find out whether a computer simulation could replace a real crash test, the ADAC worked with IT specialists to have two Lego cars collide - first digitally, then for real. The result: The simulation is good, but a real crash is indispensable.

The test subjects were an orange Porsche 911 GT3 RS and a blue Bugatti Chiron from the Lego Technic series in 1:8 scale.

Greater damage than calculated
Computer experts from the simulation specialist Dynamore had previously spent weeks feeding a software program with the properties of all the Lego bricks used and modeled the side impact in great detail. At the High Performance Computing Center in Stuttgart, the prediction was then made visible and accessible in three dimensions in a so-called cave.

During the crash at the ADAC Technical Center facility in Landsberg, several cameras each captured up to 1,000 frames per second as the two Lego cars collided. They were damaged much more severely than the computer simulation had predicted. The test was initiated by the IT and tech magazine c't, which had already had a Lego Porsche crash into the wall in 2017 together with ADAC.

Real test indispensable
Andreas Rigling from ADAC vehicle safety drew his conclusion after the test.

Andreas Rigling: "Simulations in the development process are absolutely important because they save resources. But the comparison also shows quite clearly: The real damage pattern is much more severe than predicted in the simulation. So the real crash is indispensable."

(ampnet/jri)