As if fuel costs, labor costs, and demand for clean tech didn’t already pose mammoth challenges to automakers, industry execs got a good glimpse recently of another scary challenge headed at them at top speed: a nation of seniors behind the wheel.

Nissan, for instance, recently reported that its engineers are experimenting with a special “suit” that mimics the effects of aging, such as restricted flexibility in the knees, ankles, elbows and neck, to simulate older drivers getting in and out of a car, or looking over their shoulders when reversing. And other car companies are taking similar measures.

“Everyone in this country has a role in older driver safety,” explained Diane Wigle, chief of the Safety Countermeasures Division of the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration at the recent World Traffic Safety Symposium, held in conjunction with the New York International Automobile Show. Wigle showed a graph of the U.S. population, stacked in four-year age increments — 35 to 39 years old, 40 to 44, 45 to 49, etc. In 2000, the graph shows what she called a “population pyramid,” with a smaller number of old people at the top, relative to a younger, broader, more numerous population in the middle.

By 2020, with the first Baby Boomers hitting their 70s, “the population pyramid is going to look a lot more like a square,” Wigle said. At the symposium, the American Automobile Association identified user-friendly features for older drivers, such as adjustable pedals, which allow shorter drivers to move the pedals closer, instead of pulling the seat forward. Sitting too close can put frail, elderly drivers dangerously close to the air bag in the steering wheel, said AAA spokeswoman Dannielle Sherrets. Air bags deploy with explosive force, and can cause injury or death.

“Twenty percent of the population over the age of 65 is going to buy or lease a new car in the next two years. They really do need to know what to look for, when they buy a new car, and what technologies to look for,” Sherrets said, adding that AAA found that the newer crossover body styles, combining car and truck attributes, like the Ford Edge or the Subaru Tribeca, got high marks for ease of entry, since they are not too high and not too low.

“These are not the cars you would think of as a senior vehicle.”