Elasis, was established fifteen years ago by FIAT as a laboratory for innovation, in Southern Italy. ELASIS is a greek name which means leadership, advancement, and progress. The name epitomizes its essence and its mission.

Today ELASIS is a consolidated Research and Development company for Automotive sector. ELASIS is a natural link between the basic research and the manufacturing operations of the consortium companies.

In addition to topics closely related to the design and testing of vehicles, Elasis has also developed specific competencies in the field of mobility and road safety. About this in the structure of ELASIS Centre there is a Department called Mobility and Road Safety. The specific mission of this department is to develop and apply products and processes for the improvement of road safety on the system vehicle-user-infrastructure.

Mobility and road Safety Department provide the design departments of the Fiat Group cars, with road accidents multidisciplinary analysis, particularly regarding to vehicle’s behaviour, from the point of view of active and passive safety. With the aim of better understanding these aspects, fundamentally important for vehicle designers searching for innovative solutions to guarantee better occupant protection in the event of road accidents, significant competencies have been developed in the area of safety systems (seat-belts, airbags, child seats, etc.) also through participations in European work groups.

Giancarlo della Valle is the ELASIS representative. He is head of the “Accident Analysis” area of the Mobility and Road Safety Department. He is actively involved in European projects oriented towards the improvement of road safety and the protection of weak users. He is involved in a lot of European workgroups.

He has been an official representative of the Italian Ministry of Transport in Working Group 15 of the EEVC (European Enhanced Vehicle-Safety Committee) which carries out research activities on “Improvement of Car Crash Compatibility and Frontal Impact” and in Working Group 21 of the EEVC, which carries out research activities on “Accident Analysis”.

He has been a member of the N10 sub-committee of the CUNA which expresses the opinion of the Italian State on the new standards of the ISO/TC22/SC10 “Impact test procedures”. He was the head of the N20 sub-committee of the CUNA which expresses the opinion of the Italian State on the new standards of the ISO/TC22/SC12 “Passive safety crash protection systems”. He is a member of the “Passive safety and Ergonomics” commission of the CUNA and the Italian expert for Working Group 7 of the ISO/TC22/SC12 which defines new standards for “Traffic Accident Analysis Methods”.