How do car manufacturers test new car weather safety features?

All vehicles undergo extensive testing by the manufacturer and government regulatory agencies. Private companies or government agencies may also be contracted to perform tests on vehicles.

If, for example, you wanted to test the vehicle's braking performance on unfavourable road conditions, the required conditions would be duplicated under test conditions. This may require testing an instrumented sample vehicle in controlled conditions out of doors on a test track or simulating the test condition in an environmental chamber. When testing out of doors, you may have to wait for the ideal temperature and weather conditions. Controlled ice condiitions can be duplicated by spraying water on the road surface and snow can be created using the same snow-making equipment used on ski hills. Sunlight cannot be controlled, except through scheduling.

Items such as windshield wipers and window de-icing systems, for example, are more easily tested in an environmental test chamber, since the vehicle does not have to be in motion. In a chamber, suitable temperature, wind, ice, and snow conditions can be created at any time of the year.

The environmental test facility at my place of work is about 100 ft long and about 25 ft in width and height. It can pull down to about -45C (-49F). Wind effects are created using variable-speed fans and different spray mechanisms are used to create snow and/or ice pellets.

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Re: "what safety test would require sunlight"
Performance and safety tests are tailored to both the presence and absence of sunlight. Visibility of the instrument panel inside the vehicle is affected by the direction of the sun. Sunlight can reflect off parts of the car and into the driver's eyes (e.g., chrome trim in front of the driver). The additional heat load from the sun increases the loading on the A/C system. At night, visibility of the instrument panel and other controls inside the car is important. The effectiveness of the lighting system, both in terms of road visibility and interference with oncoming drivers, is very critical. Unfortunately, many drivers outrun their headlights at night without even realizing they are doing so.

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