The Moose test, also known as the Elk test or Älgtest in Swedish, has been used in Sweden for decades to test how a certain vehicle acts when avoiding a sudden danger, such as an elk. The test is made on dry asphalt. Cones are set up in an S shape to simulate the obstacle, the road and its edges. The car which is going to be tested has one belted person at every available seat and weights in the trunk to achieve maximum load. When the driver comes onto the track, he quickly swerves into the oncoming lane to avoid the object and then immediately swerves back to avoid oncoming traffic. This is done again with a speed increase until the car skids down the cones or spins around. This test became widely known when Swedish motor journalists overturned the Mercedes-Benz A-Class in the moose test, while a much older Trabbi (Trabant car) managed it perfectly.
Swerving into the opposite lane to avoid an elk is not recommended on busy roadways because of the risk hitting another vehicle head-on. The best thing to do is to avoid hitting the moose by braking or driving down the road embankment if necessary. If that's not possible and a collison can't be avoided, it would be better to hit the rear part of the animal so the antlers don't smash through the windscreen.
Moose test is also used in a more general sense to refer to any stringent test of the quality of a product.
A moosetest is a type of vehicle safety test designed to simulate the effect of a collision with an animal.
The moosetest is designed to account for both animal collisions and swerving to avoid them, and is usually performed on a closed course with a professional driver, although some car companies use automated safety testing systems to perform a moosetest.
A moosetest begins with the moose, which is usually simulated with steel and other strong materials, arranged to be about the size and shape of an adult moose.
In a final test the test pilot jumped six metres from a bridge in Massachusetts and successfully survived water impact and floated downstream (a competitor claimed there was a little bit of a difference between 6 m and 500 km).
The foam tests showed the heat (exceeding 100 degrees C at the core) that the foam generated during the exothermic deployment reaction was not transferred to the subject and was not uncomfortable.
Tests of the ablative materials were conducted in the General Electric supersonic air arc tunnel and verified the heat of ablation of the flexible shield material.