Dr Robert Zobel
Head of accident research, Volkswagen AG
Dr Robert Zobel is head of accident research for Volkwagen AG and has teams working in Germany, the Czech Republic and China. His main topics of interest are biomechanics, advanced driver assistance systems and the structural behaviour of cars in front- and side-impact crashes. He has been at Volkswagen since 1980; prior to that he was assistant professor at the Technical University of Braunschweig.

Accident scene 2020 – trends in a changing accident environment
The future development of vehicle safety will be driven by accident avoidance much more than by injury mitigation. Rating systems of passenger vehicles should take this into account. Regulation, compliance testing and rating systems like the different international NCAP organisations should also take this into account. Accident avoidance is always the better solution. Future development should reflect this widely accepted philosophy. NCAP ratings should make sure that a ‘best pick’ is really a best pick based primarily on accident avoidance and not just with respect to injury mitigation.