Trump Admin Unveils Female Crash Dummy, Shatters Decades of Neglect

Paul Riverbank, 11/21/2025Decades-late female crash dummy promises safer cars and exposes auto industry's bias in safety tests.

Some things, it seems, take patience that borders on the unreasonable. Thursday’s announcement from the U.S. Department of Transportation—flanked by the blue-checked lab equipment and the faint hum of anticipation—felt less like the debut of a machine and more like an overdue apology. Here was the THOR-05F: nearly five feet tall, roughly the size of a real adult woman, and filled with an array of 150 sensors capable of recording the human experience of a collision in visceral detail. To call it just a ‘dummy’ is almost a disservice.

For all their headlines, earlier “female” dummies, if you can even use the term, never seemed to fit. The standard had been set long ago—the early Hybrid III model, for instance, barely reached five feet and weighed only 108 pounds. Ironically, it was built to a size that didn’t even reflect the majority of women, skewing instead toward the very smallest percentage. Automakers designed seats and safety belts and airbags for every crash test using these standards, never mind that the rest of the population—especially women—didn’t move or break quite the same way in a wreck.

The statistics kept piling up, quietly ignored by most auto executives: multiple studies confirming women are at much higher risk during a crash. Their shorter stature, lighter build—average distinctions that really matter when physics comes calling at 60 miles an hour—posed problems beyond those faced by men. According to the Centers for Disease Control and other researchers, women are not just a little more vulnerable. They are, depending on the crash, nearly three-quarters more likely to be seriously injured, and just over 17% more likely to lose their lives. Some models suggest the odds of injury in head-on collisions are even bleaker.

With this launch, the federal government is finally hitting the unmute button. Humanetics, the Michigan-based company at the heart of dummy innovation, worked closely with engineers and safety advocates to craft a form that moves, bends, and reacts like a woman’s body should. Chris O’Connor, Humanetics’ CEO, minced no words about the old paradigm: “Everything was built around the male form... Vehicles, tests, expectations.” For years, researchers pressed on this gap, but only now is a realistic solution standing up to be counted.

The government’s own language, delivered with the formality that the occasion required, nodded to past delays. Jonathan Morrison at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration acknowledged it could have happened sooner—much sooner—but was quick to emphasize that this time, “getting it right” took precedence. Car makers now have access to the THOR-05F and will, eventually, be required to use it in their certifications. It’s likely to re-shape safety rules across the industry within a few years.

There’s also a distinctly political subtext. The timing—coming after President Trump’s return to office and a vocal push for what his administration calls “biological truth” in federal policy—imbues the rollout with added symbolism. Secretary Duffy didn’t shy away from the topic, stating rather bluntly that recognizing “the science” of biological differences is both a baseline fact and a serious design issue. While this framing will undoubtedly prompt its share of reaction, the technical challenges and lived consequences behind the dummy’s creation extend beyond mere ideological lines.

The implications are profound. Up until now, the “how” of protecting a woman in a car crash was, at best, an educated guess. Now, for the first time, testing and innovation can account for the spectrum of bodies actually behind the wheel. Morrison pointed out that better understanding how women get hurt in accidents isn't just academic—it's essential to reducing fatalities, full stop.

Men, statistics remind us, still die more often in accidents, sometimes because of riskier behavior. But the gender gap among those following all the rules has never made much sense—until you realize, perhaps, that it was built in from the beginning. With the THOR-05F, automakers and safety regulators have something they’ve always claimed to seek: the tools to make cars safer for everyone, regardless of who sits in the driver’s seat.

In the end, the science is unmistakable, and finally, the instruments to respond to it are ready to go. The THOR-05F stands not just as a technological fix or a political talking point, but as a long-overdue course correction in whose safety we value—and how we choose to measure it.

For decades, car crash tests looked a certain way—orderly rows of misshapen dummies, most modeled after the average man, year after year. The industry moved forward, but quietly, something was left behind. The idea of a female crash test dummy large enough—and nuanced enough—to actually represent women stayed on the drawing board for generation after generation.Some things, it seems, take patience that borders on the unreasonable. Thursday’s announcement from the U.S. Department of Transportation—flanked by the blue-checked lab equipment and the faint hum of anticipation—felt less like the debut of a machine and more like an overdue apology. Here was the THOR-05F: nearly five feet tall, roughly the size of a real adult woman, and filled with an array of 150 sensors capable of recording the human experience of a collision in visceral detail. To call it just a ‘dummy’ is almost a disservice.For all their headlines, earlier “female” dummies, if you can even use the term, never seemed to fit. The standard had been set long ago—the early Hybrid III model, for instance, barely reached five feet and weighed only 108 pounds. Ironically, it was built to a size that didn’t even reflect the majority of women, skewing instead toward the very smallest percentage. Automakers designed seats and safety belts and airbags for every crash test using these standards, never mind that the rest of the population—especially women—didn’t move or break quite the same way in a wreck.The statistics kept piling up, quietly ignored by most auto executives: multiple studies confirming women are at much higher risk during a crash. Their shorter stature, lighter build—average distinctions that really matter when physics comes calling at 60 miles an hour—posed problems beyond those faced by men. According to the Centers for Disease Control and other researchers, women are not just a little more vulnerable. They are, depending on the crash, nearly three-quarters more likely to be seriously injured, and just over 17% more likely to lose their lives. Some models suggest the odds of injury in head-on collisions are even bleaker.With this launch, the federal government is finally hitting the unmute button. Humanetics, the Michigan-based company at the heart of dummy innovation, worked closely with engineers and safety advocates to craft a form that moves, bends, and reacts like a woman’s body should. Chris O’Connor, Humanetics’ CEO, minced no words about the old paradigm: “Everything was built around the male form... Vehicles, tests, expectations.” For years, researchers pressed on this gap, but only now is a realistic solution standing up to be counted.The government’s own language, delivered with the formality that the occasion required, nodded to past delays. Jonathan Morrison at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration acknowledged it could have happened sooner—much sooner—but was quick to emphasize that this time, “getting it right” took precedence. Car makers now have access to the THOR-05F and will, eventually, be required to use it in their certifications. It’s likely to re-shape safety rules across the industry within a few years.There’s also a distinctly political subtext. The timing—coming after President Trump’s return to office and a vocal push for what his administration calls “biological truth” in federal policy—imbues the rollout with added symbolism. Secretary Duffy didn’t shy away from the topic, stating rather bluntly that recognizing “the science” of biological differences is both a baseline fact and a serious design issue. While this framing will undoubtedly prompt its share of reaction, the technical challenges and lived consequences behind the dummy’s creation extend beyond mere ideological lines.The implications are profound. Up until now, the “how” of protecting a woman in a car crash was, at best, an educated guess. Now, for the first time, testing and innovation can account for the spectrum of bodies actually behind the wheel. Morrison pointed out that better understanding how women get hurt in accidents isn't just academic—it's essential to reducing fatalities, full stop.Men, statistics remind us, still die more often in accidents, sometimes because of riskier behavior. But the gender gap among those following all the rules has never made much sense—until you realize, perhaps, that it was built in from the beginning. With the THOR-05F, automakers and safety regulators have something they’ve always claimed to seek: the tools to make cars safer for everyone, regardless of who sits in the driver’s seat.In the end, the science is unmistakable, and finally, the instruments to respond to it are ready to go. The THOR-05F stands not just as a technological fix or a political talking point, but as a long-overdue course correction in whose safety we value—and how we choose to measure it.