Transportation Consulting

How We Help Clients

• Crash Investigation

  Looking back at a crash is about preparing for the future. How will we keep tomorrow's passengers and operators safe? What can we improve in the engineering or safety procedures that will meaningfully reduce risk? Exponent was founded in 1967 with this exact mission at heart, and it has been a foundation of everything we've done since.

  From vehicle accidents and supertanker groundings to train derailments and plane crashes, we take a comprehensive, methodical approach to understanding what went wrong and how repeats can be prevented.

  What happened?

  Sometimes when faced with charred wreckage, it's not immediately clear what occurred. Solving the mystery of an accident often requires deep expertise across many technical disciplines spanning physics, engineering, psychology, biomechanics, metallurgy, and more.

  Why did it happen?

  While it's important to identify specific failure points — e.g., the tail of the Airbus A300 broke off — it's even more important to understand why that happened, and we keep investigating until we've answered every relevant "why."

  How can we prevent it from happening again?

  There's rarely a single fix for a transportation disaster. More often, there are cascading failures to learn from. An old part didn't get replaced on schedule. An indicator light burned out. There were gaps in operator training. Unusual conditions exposed a design flaw.

  Exponent specializes in systems thinking, working in cross-disciplinary teams to ensure all angles are investigated and any solutions are comprehensive. Most importantly, we make sure all recommendations are accurate, detailed, and actionable.

• Human Performance

  People  —  whether pilots, drivers, passengers, or crew — are an integral aspect of transportation. No risk mitigation or accident investigation is complete without examining the human angle. Our human factors and biomechanics experts draw on their deep knowledge to answer key questions impacting transportation safety:

  • How can vehicle controls be designed to help operators avoid mistakes?
  • How do stress, fatigue, and other psychological states contribute to accidents?
  • How can protections like seatbelts and airbags be designed for maximum effectiveness?
  • What signs and warnings can help passengers survive and escape from an emergency situation?

• Materials Performance

  The quest to improve performance and efficiency is often a quest to reduce weight. How can we use the least material possible to do a job? As transportation engineers innovate with new materials and designs, it can be hard to know just how safe new approaches are.

  Our engineers are expert at helping design teams understand with great precision and accuracy whether their choices are meeting standards of safety. With decades of real-world experience studying the use of metals, plastics, ceramics, and other materials in transportation, we can provide trustworthy assessments backed by data.

  Our state-of-the-art labs and crash test facilities allow us to customize testing to truly evaluate your designs.

  More on our Phoenix Test & Engineering Center

• Technology Advancement

  Technology continues playing a greater role in controlling vehicles. We investigate both the present-day performance and future evolution of these systems, such as Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) for collision warning and mitigation, autonomous features, and connected vehicle technology. 

  Our consultants are involved in the testing and analysis of these systems both during development and when equipped vehicles are involved in accidents. Exponent is well-versed in:

  • Vehicle engineering and testing
  • Regulatory analysis
  • Human factors
  • Data analytics
  • Safety critical control systems
  • Sensors
  • Software, artificial intelligence, and machine learning
  • Cybersecurity
  • Electronic power and communications systems

  Thought leadership

  Evaluating L2 Advanced Driver Assistance System Performance

  Leveraging crash and non-crash Level 2 ADAS data to understand safety benefits

  

• Regulatory & Compliance

  We provide regulatory support for manufacturers and transportation systems operators, and have appeared on behalf of clients in front of regulatory bodies such as:

  • National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)
  • National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB)
  • Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC)
  • Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

  We bring fact-based analyses that help you clear regulatory hurdles, whether you are trying to launch a new product or resume operations after an incident.

  Additionally, our manufacturing safety experts can help minimize the risk of health or safety issues in your production operations. Meeting Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) requirements is just a starting point. Exponent specializes in systems thinking, looking across your infrastructure and processes to understand and mitigate risks posed by machines and humans alike.

  Thought leadership

  Better Data, More Opportunities to Maximize EV and Hybrid Safety & Performance

  Addressing product safety challenges with growing intel on real-world EV performance

  

• Environmental & Health

  Manufacturing cars, planes, trains, and ships involves many hazardous chemicals that can put workers and the nearby environment at risk. Likewise, the passengers in your vehicles may be exposed to hazardous fumes from plastics or fabrics.

  Understand and manage these risks with our expert scientific guidance. Our multidisciplinary scientific and engineering teams can give you a clear understanding of how your manufacturing activities may affect the surrounding air, soil, and groundwater. We also can help identify and mitigate issues with the air quality within vehicles.

• Sustainability

  In the big picture, we help you understand the impact of climate change on your business, now and in the future. How will your customer needs change? How might regulations evolve? How can your operations prepare for weather extremes?

• Disputes

  Clients turn to Exponent when they need to objectively understand what went wrong and why. Whether you're dealing with a performance contract dispute or a wrongful death suit, Exponent brings principled science to the task — telling you what you need to know, not what you want to hear — and providing answers to complex questions.  

  Exponent knows transportation inside and out. Our scientists and engineers represent the science at dispute proceedings by bringing clarity, precision, and a knack for explaining complicated topics in understandable ways. We assist clients across all phases of disputes, including pre-litigation, fact-finding, litigation expert testimony, and arbitration.