American roads looked different when the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety built its car-smashing crash test system in the early 1990s. Backup cameras didn’t exist, airbags weren’t mandatory, and safety rules had not yet killed the pop-up headlight. But perhaps the biggest difference is that cars were a lot less heavy—about a quarter lighter than the average vehicle today.
Raul Arbelaez, who oversees crash tests at the IIHS, has watched that transformation occur over his two-decade career, seeing sedans morph into “crossovers” and minivans become SUVs. The nonprofit lab tests most of the popular cars on the market and its safety endorsements are coveted by automakers. But until recently, he didn’t
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