Automaker uses baboons to test out childproof safety features

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Hyundai let 40 monkeys do their worst to latest family car

Car manufacturer Hyundai has gone ape with its latest round of product testing.

To determine how childproof its new hatchback really is, the automaker let more than 40 baboons loose on the New Generation i30, which is designed for families with their own “little monkeys.” Its childproof features include more durable seats, cupholders and buttons, and use of easy-wipe plastics in the interior.

Hyundai brought its latest model to the Knowsley Safari Park in Merseyside, Britain, and left it in an enclosure with a horde of apes for 10 hours.

The primates swarmed the car and jumped on its seats, ate lunch in the backseat, scratched the paint and even bit the steering wheel. By the end of the day, the i30 was smeared and scraped, but otherwise in good shape, according to a news release.

The carmaker was pleased with the results of the unorthodox test. "You have to be pretty brave to subject a car to the most rigorous quality testers in the world, and the monkeys certainly gave our New Generation i30 a thorough examination," Hyundai's i30 product manager, Felicity Wood, said in the release. "The fact that it survived with only a few scrapes is testament to the way a modern Hyundai is designed and engineered."

As a gesture of gratitude to their new-found quality control specialists, Hyundai donated 1,000 pounds, or about $1,600, to the Primate Society of Great Britain.