A photorealistic side view of a silver car during a crash test, showing fragmented body panels, internal mesh structures, and scattered debris.

A side view of a car segment (door or front quarter panel) during a high-speed crash simulation. The outer shell is composed of overlapping rigid scale-like plates (resembling pangolin armor) that are beginning to shift and deflect outward upon impact. Beneath the outer plates, a semi-transparent, flexible mesh skeleton made of an auxetic or shape-memory material is visibly stretching and compressing in a localized region. The impact point shows a moderate indentation, with some plates fractured or popped off, illustrating controlled failure. Shockwave lines propagate through the mesh in multiple directions, showing how the energy is being redistributed. Arrows indicate force dissipation both laterally and rearward through the mesh. Crushed plates near the point of impact contrast with undisturbed, intact regions elsewhere on the shell — highlighting the modular, localized deformation response. The background shows high-speed cameras and a test sled setup to imply a controlled laboratory crash test environment. See more