Elk test

The evasive maneuver test (Swedish: Undanmanöverprov), more commonly known as the moose test or elk test (Swedish: Älgtest, German: Elchtest), is performed to determine how well a certain vehicle evades a suddenly appearing obstacle. This test has been standardized in ISO 3888-2.

Forms of the test have been performed in Sweden since the 1970s. The colloquial and internationally better-known name for the test was coined in 1997 by the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung after the Swedish motor magazine Teknikens Värld flipped a Mercedes-Benz A-Class in a test ostensibly made to measure the car's ability to avoid hitting a moose.

In reality, the test is rather constructed to simulate, for example, a reversing car or a child rushing out onto the road. This is because it is more likely that the moose will continue across the road than remain in place or turn back, making it more advisable to brake hard and try to slip behind the animal than to swerve in front of it.

The test is performed on a dry road surface. Traffic cones are set up in an S shape to simulate the obstacle, road, and road edges. The car to be tested has one belted person in each available seat and weights in the trunk to achieve maximum load.

When the driver comes onto the track, they quickly swerve into the oncoming lane to avoid the object and then immediately swerves back to avoid oncoming traffic. The test is repeated with an increased speed until the car skids, knocks down cones, or spins around. This usually happens at speeds of about 70–80 km/h (45–50 mph)

On October 21, 1997, the journalist Robert Collin from the motor magazine Teknikens Värld overturned the new Mercedes-Benz A-Class in the moose test, while a Trabant —a much older, and widely mocked car from the former East Germany— later managed it perfectly. In July 2005, the Dacia Logan appeared initially to fail the test, but a later investigation concluded that excessive testing had worn the car's tires to failure.

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Wikipedia