Over the course of automotive history, few inventions have saved more lives than the three-point seat belt. While seat belt laws were initially met with some outrage, decades later, most of us can agree that being held in place beats being ejected in a crash, and the data backs it up. NHTSA reports that seat belts saved approximately 14,955 lives in 2017 alone, a significant figure for a relatively unobtrusive piece of tech. However, just because the three-point belt is more than 65 years old doesn’t mean we aren’t done tinkering with it yet. Volvo has designed what it’s calling “a major safety improvement to the safety belt,” and it aims to prevent more minor belt-related injuries.
It’s worth noting that the three-point seat belt has come a long way since its introduction in 1959. From inertial reel seat belt lockers to restrict belt movement in a crash to pyrotechnic pretensioners that fire in a collision to tighten belts and reduce the risk of excessive movement almost instantly to electronic pretensions that can pre-emptively cinch up during high-g maneuvers to keep occupants in place and help the driver stay in their seat for better control over the vehicle, but the wheels of innovation rarely stand still for long.
The thing is, modern seat belt systems are still relatively rigid, in that they’re optimized for the Hybrid III dummies used in crash testing by agencies such as NHTSA, and most pretensioned belt loads are fixed values. However, many real-life people aren’t shaped like popular Hybrid III crash test dummies, and that can open the door to injuries such as fractured ribs. While force limiters exist to reduce the likelihood of rib fractures and chest injuries, Volvo seems to be taking the next logical step with pretensioners that adapt to occupants as well as collisions.
The automaker’s calling this contraption the Multi-Adaptive Safety Belt, and while a lot of the technology inside is similar to what we’ve seen before, how it’s used is a little bit different. While many vehicles’ pretensioners have a one-size-fits-all approach, Volvo’s new strategy is more tailored, building on data from 80,000 collision occupants in the goal of more precise actuation. As the automaker writes:
The new multi-adaptive safety belt can use data input from interior and exterior sensors to customise protection, adapting the setting based on the situation and individual’s profiles, such as their height, weight, body shape and seating position. For example, a larger occupant in a serious crash will receive a higher belt load setting to help reduce the risk of head injury. While a smaller occupant in a milder crash will receive a lower belt load setting to reduce the risk of rib fractures.
This is achieved by significantly increasing the number of so-called load-limiting profile variations, which manage the force applied to the occupants in the event of an accident.
Interestingly, this seat belt system is updatable over-the-air, with the theory being that as Volvo learns more and tweaks programming in its crash lab, more and improved profiles can be pushed out to cars around the globe with the goal of improving occupant safety without drivers having to take their cars into dealerships.
In theory, this could be the first major seat belt advancement in more than a decade, with the last significant technological innovation being Ford’s market introduction of inflatable belts. While we likely won’t have independent data until entities like NHTSA and the IIHS crash-test the forthcoming Volvo EX60, the first car expected to be fitted with these belts, this purported passive safety upgrade seems promising. If it does result in safer belts and fewer injuries with data to back it up, I feel like that’s something pretty much everyone could get behind.Top graphic images: Volvo
Support our mission of championing car culture by becoming an Official Autopian Member.
Well, I’ve never owned a car that had the automatic shoulder belt deployer.
It was an automatic disqualifier back in the day.
It was annoying in rental cars as buckling in has been a part of my pre-start sequence since I was 15.5 years old and in driver’s ed. That was now more than 40 years ago.
And including getting my pilot’s license in 2003.
This feels like the old “perfection is the enemy of good enough” trope.
And that exploded diagram of the mechanism looks like another thing that could fail or be expensive to maintain.
Oh wow. That was more than 50 years ago in driver’s ed.
I saw a really cool early 90s Accord wagon, but it had those shoulder belts and I jsut couldn’t do it.
Tempus fugit.
If these are safer for real human bodies in ways Hybrid III crash test dummies can’t test, then how does Volvo plan to test these?
Using dummies with a variety of weights and proportions?
I’m a Luddite. KISS. The only improvement I need to see is more range in the side mounting points (to reduce and hopefully eliminate neck rubbing).
Nice interior in that 122S! Model not too shabby either…
That opening pic has me thinking of the Chuck Berry song “No Particular Place to Go”.
As long as it’s better than the one in my GR86 that grabs on like a snapping turtle when I come up to slow stops from fairly low speeds, like stop signs in my quiet neighborhood or when I pull up to the mailbox and try to lean out. Yet, when some dumbass spun out on the highway in front of me and I impacted his car at about 15 mph after heavy braking from highway speed, it didn’t do it. Wait, no, it’s OTA connected?! Screw that, then, I don’t want it.
But I thought all cars were going to drive themselves and not be able to hit each other or anything else?!
Comment section confirms someone made even this political. Insufferable
Yep, first time I have wished for the ability to block another user. Some people just cannot help themselves.
That particular individual… needs something better to do with their life.
While I’m in favor of most any reasonable advancement that improves safety, the exploded view of this new system’s mechanism is so dauntingly complex that it gives me pause. Will these things continue to work properly 20, 30, or even 40 years after they’re made? Even if whatever cell network (5G, I assume) the cars they’re in use has long-since been retired (like how the closure of the 3G network orphaned some BMW and VW vehicles in terms of connectivity just 5-6 years after they were produced)?
I still love Volvo, even though they’re not quite what they used to be (change is unavoidable, but it’s not always for the better). However, new Volvos are a bit too pricey for my tastes… I could buy one, but I’d rather not put that much cash into a rapidly depreciating asset given my other needs, and the economic reality we all inhabit. But I still like the brand a lot, especially the older models (I’m supposed to go buy a semi-rough 36-year-old 245 project car (manual, with AC and still-decent Michelins, and w/o a sunroof or roof rack) just a few hours from now) …it’ll be my third Volvo.
I also really dig Saab and Citroen (of course) too, but I’m not brave/foolish/wealthy enough to comfortably purchase a lovely old DS, especially since that Citroen mechanic on Melrose Ave. has long since retired.
warning on dash ‘Updating Seatbelts Refrain From Crashing”
Eh, make them safer by making them more comfortable so people will wear them.
One of the biggest turnoffs of American cars in the olden days was their shit-uncomfortable shoulder-strap seat belts. I could never buy one, since I was always going to wear them and I was not going to pay to be uncomfortable. it’s almost as if they made them uncomfortable so drivers would be liable when they didn’t wear them in a crash [tfh].
Also, rib trauma > head trauma.
I’m just glad “smart” here doesn’t mean the belts have their own sentient Insta accounts.
“Bro just saved this college girl’s life and for real think I just made it to second base!”
I wonder if there would be any appetite for a less-intrustive 4pt harness for everyday use. I’d probably use it as long as the retractors were spring loaded (not fixed). Mounting points and clutter might be an issue, but spreading the force across more of the skeleton seems like a good idea.
The problem with a 4-point harness would be forces on the neck. There’s a good reason we don’t use them in street cars, and a good reason why racing drivers need a HANS device.
I never knew seat belts could be so… sexy.
Everyone was sexy in 1971.
Now she’s old enough to be your Grandmother.
Hot damn, Nana! You fine!
On one hand, I commend Volvo on the commitment to increasing seat belt safety. On the other hand, having network connected seat belts seems like it is guaranteed to result in more than a few safety recall “updates”.
I will never forget when I was driving fast and I went over some train tracks that made my Polestar 2 “fly” enough from the ground and the seat belts push me down against the seat with a mechanical sound I never heard before, they call that jesus hug over internet forums. I never had a car that behaved like that, literally putting my a** back to the seat like a roller coaster experience.
Ooooh, thanks for the tip! Now I’ve got something to try out this weekend with my Polestar 2…
I’m glad Volvo continues to strive for safety. It feels refreshing that they’re consistent in their mission focus.
Do they even still offer inflatable belts anymore? I know Ford tried them for a while. I was in an Explorer that had them years ago. I think it’s the only one I’ve seen equipped like that. Volvo’s approach definitely seems more practical.
Waiting for the current “administration” to outlaw seatbelts to appease the base.
SEATBELTS ARE FOR SISSY LIBERALS, WE FLY OUT THE WINDSHIELD LIKE REEL MEN!!!
/s incase it’s not obvious.
I have a maga niece that has survived 3 accidents without seatbelts and will not use them. she also smokes.
I assume the airbags worked as intended.
Your niece really likes playing Russian Roulette, doesn’t she?
You’re missing the blame pointing to the ‘liberals’ under LBJ for overstepping their authority by forcing people to buy vehicles equipped with seatbelts way back in 1966.
Every person who refuses to wear seatbelts all seem to know that one hypothetical person who rolled over into a ditch and drowned because they couldn’t get out of a seatbelt. I don’t think this hypothetical person actually exists, which is astounding because it’s the cousin of so many people.
Eh, my uncle claims the only reason he survived a convertible rollover crash is because he was thrown clear, and it might even be true. But even if it is true, it’s still better to be strapped in for the vast, vast majority of wrecks and I prefer to play the numbers. That plus being on scene for a wreck where a guy was ejected and really messed up and another time for a head-on where no ejection happened but seatbelts were not used and two people didn’t make it. Those scenes stay in my head so I’ll wear my seatbelts, thanks.
I’ve said it before, but you’ll never find an EMT who advocates for the “hope you get thrown clear” strategy of seat belt wearing. Anyone who sees car accidents on a regular basis knows how important seat belts are.
EMT here, can strongly confirm.
My father tried to kill himself by driving off a highway at high speed, stopping several hundred yards into the forest when a tree took over the braking duties for his unfortunate Opel GT. He survived because he wasn’t wearing a seatbelt. (Ended up under the passenger dashboard with the drivetrain in the driver’s seat and he still would have died if a bear hunter didn’t find him. His face is still a bit asymmetrical.) However, that’s certainly outlier odds, and he must have had some kind of divine intervention save him that day so that he could live on to bring me into this world against my consent and make a bunch of peoples’ lives miserable. Whether the end of that last sentence refers to him or me is anyone’s guess, but either way, I always wear a seatbelt.
You seem to have a very peculiar straw man of your political foes living rent free in your head. Maybe find a hobby or something?
My Old Man is as maga as they get and this would make him soooo happy. Seriously – I witnessed one of the dumbest arguments ever as a kid when, after not wearing seatbelts became a ticketable offence, The Old Man brought home some lengths of seatbelt material and tried to get Mom to sew it diagonally across a jacket in an effort to fool the local PD.
She refused, but to this day he keeps one of those plastic wood-clamps on the seatbelt so it’s super loose (and super useless) at all times – basically it cant retract. I like to point out that as someone who recreates auto-accidents for lawyers, seeing that in an accident pic would be exhibit one for an insurance claim denial.