Proposed prioritization framework for future frontal impact safety enhancements. A holistic assessment tool to evaluate candidate topics, identify regulatory gaps, and define priorities for future frontal impact requirements. Draft table template includes topics such as soft tissue neck, chest, abdomen, foot and ankle, hand and arm, submarining, rear seat row, driver seat, front passenger seat, low speed, robustness, multi-scenario testing, and virtual testing with human body model. The framework considers equity issues, relevance, current UN Regulations, available test and criteria, and identifies volunteers to prepare topics.

The EqOP-TF4 held its 5th meeting on June 25, 2026, with 41 participants. The agenda was adopted with one item removed, and previous minutes were approved. The chair presented an updated priority table assessing injury relevance, regulatory gaps, test capabilities, and potential safety benefits for prioritizing future frontal impact safety requirements. Japan will report on submarining and female injury patterns. A workshop is scheduled for November 4–6, 2026, in Japan. The next meeting is September 7, 2026.

Regarding buses and coaches scope, delegates supported defining school buses as Special Purpose Vehicles, enabling inclusion without creating a harmonized international category. Comments are due by 14 August. The draft light vehicle UN Regulation was uploaded for review with comments due before or during the September in-person meeting in France. An in-person meeting is scheduled for September 2026.

Workshop on frontal impact scheduled for Tokyo, Japan, 4-6 November 2026 will assess robustness, defined as the vehicle’s ability to protect occupants across variations in body height, weight, shape, and seating position in real-world collisions by maintaining structural integrity and effective safety systems. The workshop will explore conceptual ideas for procedures to assess robustness by complementing current specific requirements based on ATDs using a more holistic approach. Sessions will address issues requiring solution and regulatory solutions, including review of relevant regulations, clarification of roles of ATDs and HBMs, and conceptual ideas of future regulatory upgrades addressing brain injury, soft tissue neck injury, lower leg injury, thorax injury, submarining, abdominal loading injury, and lower severity collisions.

The agenda includes finalization of the proposal for a UNR on buses and coaches, feedback on the drafting of a UNR for light vehicles, and discussion of a September face-to-face meeting agenda.

The agenda for the 14th session of Task Force Virtual Crash Testing covers approval of agenda and minutes, review of a progress dashboard, and a proposal for virtual testing introduced by France. Discussion items include assessment of Human Model readiness at various timeframes and feedback from HBM4VT network stakeholders. The session concludes with next steps and scheduling.

The 14th EqOP Task Force Virtual Crash Testing meeting was held online on 13 April 2026 with 34 participants. France presented a proposal for an amendment to Resolution 3 to promote a transversal approach facilitating introduction of Virtual Testing as an optional alternative to physical tests in relevant regulations, with a workshop scheduled for 7 May 2026. A survey sent to HBM developers received 5 responses, which TU Graz anonymized into a table. The group proposed splitting implementation information into technical implementation of a metric into HBM and methods to use metrics for assessment of vehicles. The next meeting is scheduled for 11 June 2026.

The 15th EqOP Virtual Crash Testing Task Force meeting was held online on 9 July 2026 with 29 participants. An agenda item on Elemance and GHBMC was added and approved. A survey to HBM developers, structured on the MIRA board, was approximately 70% complete; results will be finalized and distributed. The group continued discussions on MIRA board readiness over different time horizons, incorporating survey input. Follow-up discussions are scheduled for 7 September 2026 in Munich and 30 September 2026.

Elemance, founded in 2014, distributes, maintains, and supports the GHBMC family of human body models for crash simulations. The Global Human Body Models Consortium consolidates worldwide HBM research and development into a single global effort to develop and maintain high-fidelity finite-element human body models. Elemance provides four occupant sizes in simplified and detailed versions, extensively validated through 250+ peer-reviewed publications and 100+ validation simulations. The models are widely adopted across 133 academic licenses and 41 commercial licenses, and have achieved Euro NCAP certification for occupant and pedestrian models.

Whiplash remains a major concern following rear-end collisions, which account for 27.8% of passenger vehicle crashes. Females face greater risk of long-term cervical spine injury than males. Females have less muscle strength, more slender necks, and lower tolerance limits for lower neck shear force compared to males. Only one rear impact dummy size, the 50th percentile male, is currently available. Dynamic testing reveals differences in responses between 50th percentile female and male dummies. Whiplash mitigation requires reducing occupant acceleration, minimising relative movements between vertebrae, and minimising forward rebound. The seat must be considered as a system; focusing on one component alone is inadequate. Preparation for a future 50th percentile female rear impact dummy is recommended, with new injury thresholds established.

The 21st IWG CLIV Session agenda for 8–11 September 2026 at UTAC Autodrome de Linas-Montlhry, France, focuses four meeting days on light vehicles. Drafting work with demonstrations occurs throughout the week. Day 1 includes introduction, official welcome, agenda adoption, progress summary, group photo, drafting regulatory text for LVs, research presentation on hot cars, and vehicle demonstration. Days 2–4 comprise drafting sessions for UNR for LVs, presentations including ISO WG on surrogate progression and vehicle demonstration, with closing remarks each day. The meeting ends 17:00 on Friday 11 September 2026.

Work-in-progress draft regulation to address the safety of children left in light vehicles, with changes to amend definitions of ‘Child’ or ‘Children’ to refer to individuals generally considered to be between 0 and 6 years old, replace “frequency” with “repetition rate” in warning requirements, and clarify system deactivation, warning delay, and internal visible warning procedures. The proposed regulation would cover vehicles of categories M₁ and N₁ with mass not exceeding 3,500 kg equipped with indirect sensing or direct sensing systems to detect children left unattended in vehicles.

The agenda includes Y-category regulatory framework new for N₁, Y-category pedestrian protection UN R127, UN R42 from informal document GRSP-79-11, UN R134 Y-category exclusion, any other business, and dates for next meetings on 5 October, November week 47, 24 November or 1 December, and 7-11 December at GRSP-80.

Proposal for a new UN Regulation on crashworthiness of vehicles of category N₁Y with regard to protection of fuel system integrity, protection against electrical shock, and vehicle crash compatibility in the event of frontal, rear-end, and lateral collision. The proposal would establish frontal impact requirements based on UN R94 or UN R137 at manufacturer’s choice in agreement with the designated technical service, lateral impact requirements based on UN R95 without side pole impact test, and rear impact requirements based on UN R153 without modification. Vehicles with maximum design speed not exceeding the applicable impact speed shall be tested at their maximum design speed and comply with post-impact requirements. Fuel system integrity, electrical shock protection from rechargeable energy storage systems, and crash compatibility requirements apply. Crash Compatibility Criterion shall not exceed 40 g and Crash Compatibility Value shall not exceed 100 g×tonne, determined according to Annex 3. Vehicles of category N₁Y derived from category X vehicles complying with UN R94 (05 series amendments supplement 2), UN R95 (06 series amendments supplement 2), UN R137 (04 series amendments supplement 1), and UN R153 (01 series amendments supplement 1) are deemed to meet all requirements.

Proposal to amend UN R11 to modify scope and definitions regarding vehicles of categories M₁ and N₁, introduce provisions for Automated Driving Systems, revise door operation requirements including exterior and interior latch release controls and door handles, add performance requirements for power-assisted systems and intuitive operation, amend provisions on door locks for side rear doors and back doors, include new definitions for latch release control, door handle, retractable door handle, unlock, unlatch, door opening, and power loss, add transitional provisions for the 05 series of amendments, and introduce new test procedures in Annex 7 for power loss events with interior and exterior door opening procedures requiring demonstration of door functionality within 60 minutes of power disconnection and at least five opening cycles. The amendments apply to supplement 3 of the 04 series for vehicles of category X and the 05 series of amendments to UN R11, based on justifications in GRSP-79-19 and GRSP-78-48.

The EqOP Task Force 2 met online on 29-30 June 2026 to discuss whiplash protection in vehicle seats. Presentations covered whiplash injury mechanisms, UN R17 evaluation, C-NCAP 2027 virtual testing plans, EvaRID and BioRID dummy comparisons, IIHS Rear Impact 2.0 protocol development, parametric seat modelling, and validation of a female SET 50F FE model. Discussions concluded that regulations should avoid sub-optimization toward single criteria, dynamic testing better represents real-world conditions, head-restraint positioning should not be considered misuse, and more forgiving seat designs are needed. The next meeting is scheduled for 28 September 2026.

The document addresses open issues and comments regarding UN R11 and GTR No. 1 concerning emergency door opening. It proposes defining vehicle master control switch as the device bringing onboard electronics from off to normal operation mode, and suggests activating this switch rather than switching ignition on in test procedures. The document defines main power supply as power source(s) and supply path(s) normally used for door system operation, excluding secondary or back-up supply. It raises concerns about secondary or back-up power supply failure occurring in the field before emergencies despite compliant test results. The document discusses objective intuitiveness criteria including visibility, accessibility, discoverability, identification, and operability. It recommends standardized marking for exterior door handles and proposes that door opening and closing procedures be described in vehicle owners’ manuals.

The 2nd Workshop of the Task Force on Virtual Crash Testing is scheduled for September 7, 2026, from 10:00–16:00 CET in Room W 401, Professor-Huber-Platz 02. The agenda includes welcome and workshop objectives, approval of the agenda, context setting on EqOP and the role of TF3, review of ATD limitations and HBM potential, discussion of HBM readiness for EqOP applications, connecting EqOP priorities with ATD limitations and HBM readiness, HBM landscape assessment, and summary of conclusions and next steps.