Toyota’s Collaborative Safety Research Center Touts Partnerships, Eyes Future with Announcement of 10 New Projects<\/h1>\n
PR Newswire<\/p>\n
ANN ARBOR, Mich., June 2, 2026<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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- New research projects<\/i>\u00a0focus on<\/i>\u00a0behavioral<\/i>\u00a0safety,<\/i>\u00a0crash<\/i>\u00a0prevention<\/i>\u00a0and passive<\/i>\u00a0safety<\/i><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
ANN ARBOR, Mich.<\/span>, June 2, 2026<\/span> \/PRNewswire-HISPANIC PR WIRE\/ — Before joining Toyota’s Collaborative Safety Research Center (CSRC), Zhaonan Sun spent years studying how the human body absorbs the force of a crash.<\/p>\n
\n![\"Toyota\u2019s](\"https:\/\/mmx.prnewswire.com\/media\/MS1852270\/Toyota_Motor_North_America-CSRC.jpg?id=OA2644234\" "\\"Toyota\u2019s")
<\/p>\n<\/div>\nNow, as a principal scientist at CSRC, he helps identify opportunities to do something about it.<\/p>\n
Sun was a graduate student at the University of Virginia (UVA), studying injury biomechanics and human body modeling under Jason Kerrigan,\u00a0director of\u00a0UVA’s Center for Applied Biomechanics since 2019\u00a0and\u00a0long-time collaborator\u00a0with CSRC.\u00a0As fate\u00a0would have it,\u00a0the researcher Sun\u00a0once\u00a0trained under is now\u00a0his\u00a0colleague.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“He spent the time to understand the background. He went and really tried to make the project successful \u2014 and he made it sing,” Kerrigan said of Sun’s graduate research. “I was sad to see him go, but I’m really glad he found his way back, this time on the Toyota side.”<\/p>\n
For Sun, moving from the lab to Toyota revealed something he hadn’t been able to see before.<\/p>\n
“I wouldn’t say the work at the university is the tip of the iceberg. I would say it’s half of the iceberg,” he said. “And now it’s great to see the other half \u2014 how we leverage the results to talk to our regulators, rating agencies, and safety stakeholders to reduce the number of fatalities on the road.”<\/p>\n
Sun’s path from UVA to Toyota is, in many ways, the story of CSRC itself. When Toyota launched CSRC in 2011, the company posited that investing in safety research in clinical, laboratory, and university settings could pay greater dividends than keeping the work in-house. Now, more than 100 completed studies later, their work is only accelerating.<\/p>\n
Today,\u00a0CSRC announced\u00a010 new safety research projects, in collaboration with seven universities and private sector organizations including UVA, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Michigan and Purdue University. These projects range from\u00a0how adaptive interfaces can increase driver adoption of advanced safety systems,\u00a0to new methods for detecting pedestrians and cyclists, to how speeding risk varies by road type\u00a0and the gap between a driver’s speed and posted limits.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“CSRC was built on the idea that the best safety research happens when you invest in relationships over time,\u00a0with the best institutions, the best researchers,\u00a0and a shared commitment to publishing what you find,” said Jeff Makarewicz,\u00a0TMNA\u00a0Group Vice President, R&D.\u00a0\u00a0“Each of these 10 new projects reflects that approach, building up research capabilities and institutional\u00a0knowledge.”\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
CSRC Senior Manager Jason Hallman sees these 10 new projects as a continuation of what he calls a “1+1 = 3 relationship.” In short, Toyota’s engineering knowledge, related government and safety research activity, and academic expertise combine into something no one could produce alone.<\/p>\n
“The work we undertake now will build and shape the safety features drivers can benefit from for decades to come.”\u00a0Hallman said.\u00a0“Every project we select is a strategic investment in that future: in even safer vehicles, enhanced engineering tools, and results we hope the industry and policymakers can build on.”\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
At the heart of much of this work is THUMS, the Total Human Model for Safety<\/a>, a Toyota-developed virtual human body model that allows researchers to simulate crashes in a digital environment with unprecedented levels of detail.<\/p>\n
Although they have their own limitations, computational models can run far more simulations and can predict nearly 100 injury types simultaneously. Sun, who works across multiple university collaborations at CSRC, sits at the center of that process \u2014 coordinating between university researchers, Toyota engineers, and safety stakeholders to put the findings to work.<\/p>\n
That sense of purpose extends to the researchers CSRC has helped train over 15 years, many of whom have gone on to positions in government, academia, and across the automotive industry, and in a few cases, like Sun, to Toyota itself.<\/p>\n
“It’s very exciting to have my fingerprint on the future of vehicle safety,” he said. “Using human body models and doing virtual testing is a professional passion of mine. I’m excited to see where the future leads with these new projects and how we can help to better protect everyone on the road.”<\/p>\n
Details on each of the 10 new projects are below.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Collaborator: Massachusetts Institute of Technology<\/b>
Project Name: <\/b>Adaptive Interfaces for increasing ADAS adoption
Key Question: <\/b>How do a driver’s expected benefits and concerns affect when they choose to use advanced driver assistance (ADAS) across various situations?
Approach: <\/b>Drivers will view various story-framed driving videos and report their perceived effort, value, risk and likelihood to use specific ADAS features.<\/p>\nCollaborator: Purdue University\/Ohio State University<\/b>
Project Name:<\/b> Naturalistic vulnerable road user (VRU) detection with Micro-Doppler Radar
Key Question: <\/b>How can current radar sensors signals and novel AI models enhance VRU detection for future rating assessments?
Approach: <\/b>Researchers will collect real-world radar data from current automotive sensors and use it to develop\u00a0novel\u00a0AI\u00a0algorithms that can\u00a0more quickly\u00a0detect and\u00a0distinguish between pedestrians, cyclists, and other road users.<\/p>\nCollaborator: Touchstone Evaluations, Inc.<\/b>
Project Name:<\/b> Speeding-related crash outcomes based on road type and context\u00a0
Key Question: <\/b>What are\u00a0the\u00a0injury and fatality risks of speeding based on posted speed\u00a0limit\u00a0and speed\u00a0differential?\u00a0
Approach: <\/b>Researchers will analyze crash data to measure how injury and fatality risk\u00a0changes\u00a0based\u00a0on road type, posted speed limit, and how far a driver is traveling above it.\u00a0<\/p>\nCollaborator: Touchstone Evaluations, Inc.<\/b>
Project Name:<\/b> Speed\u00a0compliance effects\u00a0on\u00a0surrounding vehicles\u00a0\u00a0
Key Question: <\/b>How does a driver’s speed affect the surrounding traffic behavior?\u00a0\u00a0
Approach: <\/b>Researchers will analyze real-world driving data to\u00a0quantify\u00a0how a driver’s speed \u2014\u00a0compared to\u00a0surrounding traffic \u2014 affects the\u00a0behavior of nearby vehicles.\u00a0<\/p>\nCollaborator: University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI)<\/b>\u00a0
Project Name:<\/b> Parametric studies with\u00a0varying size\/shape\u00a0human body models (HBM)\u00a0\u00a0
Key Question: <\/b>How to treat different HBMs to align virtual testing results across OEMs and regions?\u00a0\u00a0
Approach: <\/b>Researchers will run virtual crash tests using three widely available\u00a0HBMs\u00a0across standard and modified geometries to identify ways to align results across automakers and regions.\u00a0<\/p>\nCollaborator: University of Michigan-Dearborn\/UMTRI<\/b>\u00a0\u00a0
Project Name:<\/b> Vehicle to network (V2N) safety benefits for anticipatory assistance\u00a0\u00a0
Key Question: <\/b>How can V2N communication be best leveraged to increase driver safety?\u00a0
Approach: <\/b>Researchers will\u00a0leverage international efforts and\u00a0U.S.-specific\u00a0crash and\u00a0driving records to identify where vehicle-to-network communication can\u00a0best\u00a0give drivers earlier warning of potential hazards\u00a0ahead.\u00a0<\/p>\nCollaborator: University of Virginia<\/b>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0
Project Name:<\/b> Virtual testing\u00a0sensitivity to human body model (HBM) updates\u00a0
Key Question: <\/b>What are the effects of\u00a0small changes\u00a0in HBMs on injury metrics and virtual testing results?\u00a0
Approach: <\/b>Researchers will build an automated simulation framework to test how small\u00a0version updates\u00a0to virtual human body models affect injury predictions in crash scenarios.<\/p>\nCollaborator: University of Virginia<\/b>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0
Project Name:<\/b> Foot posture and implication for ankle injury\u00a0risk prediction\u00a0
Key Question: <\/b>What are the predicted effects of a range of footwell geometries and foot posture on ankle injury risk?\u00a0
Approach: <\/b>Researchers will collect vehicle interior measurements and run computer simulations to understand how different foot positions and footwell designs affect ankle injury risk in a crash.<\/p>\nCollaborator: University of Virginia<\/b>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0
Project Name:<\/b> Lumbar spine\u00a0injury prediction with crash test dummies\u00a0
Key Question: <\/b>How to enable lumbar spine injury risk prediction in upright and reclined seating positions from values provided by different dummies?
Approach: <\/b>Researchers will run crash simulations to develop a method for translating lower-back injury readings from crash test dummies into injury risk predictions for real occupants.\u00a0<\/p>\nCollaborator: University of<\/b>\u00a0Wisconsin-Madison<\/b>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0
Project Name:<\/b> Alert annoyance\u00a0and interaction mitigation strategies\u00a0\u00a0
Key Question: <\/b>Do the characteristics of the alert source influence the driver’s level of annoyance?
Approach: <\/b>Volunteers will complete scenario-based surveys and interviews to measure how different types of alerts \u2014 and where they come from \u2014 affect driver annoyance and\u00a0 use of safety and convenience features.<\/p>\nAbout Toyota<\/b>\u00a0<\/p>\n
Toyota (NYSE:TM) has been a part of the cultural fabric in North America for nearly 70 years, and\u00a0is committed to advancing sustainable, next-generation mobility through our Toyota and Lexus brands, plus our more than 1,800 dealerships.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Toyota directly employs nearly 64,000 people in North America who have contributed to the design, engineering, and assembly of over 50 million cars and trucks at our 14 manufacturing plants.\u00a0In 2025, Toyota’s plant in North Carolina began to assemble automotive batteries for electrified vehicles.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"Toyota](\"https:\/\/mmx.prnewswire.com\/media\/MS421183\/Toyota-Corp-Red-Logo.jpg?id=OA2644235\" "\\"Toyota"){kind=logo}
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