Among the most significant improvements to the auto making process during the 20th century was the introduction of automobile safety tests in the late 1950s. Following years of use in trials in the aerospace industry, Anthropomorphic Test Devices (crash test dummies) were finally integrated into the earthbound process to more accurately simulate the effects of accidents on human bodies. As time has advanced, so, too, has the technology used to collect the pertinent data.

An early part of the testing of cars was the high speed camera which allowed investigators to observe what would otherwise be too fast to analyze clearly. Originally recorded on film, in the 1990s the development of CMOS (complementary metal-oxide semiconductor) sensors introduced an increasingly inexpensive and effective new light responsive material with which to make digital high speed cameras smaller and more rugged, introducing greater maneuverability and improving the observation potential for crash testing the final vehicle and investigating the individual components.