Section 2. Response to Environmental and Safety Issues

Item 4. Approach to Vehicle Safety

Adoption of passive safety vehicle body

The review of vehicle body design was also explored as an approach to passive safety technology. The technology developed as a result was called Global Outstanding Assessment (GOA), and was adopted, to start with, in the Starlet released in December 1995. The name GOA was intended to signify performance in line with the corporate goal of achieving a world-leading level of safety performance. The underbody and sturdy cabin effectively dissipated collision energy to minimize deformation of the cabin and boost occupant protection performance.

The development of GOA included experiments, unusual at the time, simulating offset collisions, or frontal collisions between two vehicles not head-on but with a slightly staggered contact. Such collision tests were used to study accidents as they were actually likely to happen, or, in other words, in pursuit of "absolute safety". This concept forms the basis of Toyota safety technologies.

To coincide with the sales launch of vehicle series fitted with GOA, a safety promotion campaign was rolled out featuring "Give me GOA" television commercials and other advertisements. This strategy was successful in providing something to which consumers could relate, which was reflected in sales performance. Following the example of GOA, there was a collective move among companies within the automotive industry to give nicknames to their safety vehicle body designs. Subsequently, a range of additional assessment methods have been added to GOA and evolution has been achieved on several fronts, for instance in pedestrian protection performance and in compatibility performance, which minimizes damage to both vehicles in a collision between a heavy and a light vehicle.

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