In 1959, Volvo’s Nils Bohlin invented the three-point seatbelt for cars and now the Swedes have given the safety device its most radical overhaul in seven decades.
Volvo says its new multi-adaptive belt analyzes data from a suite of internal and external sensors to adapt the belt’s operation to the situation and seat occupant’s body. In Volvo safety speak, that means the number of “load-limiting profile variations” has been dramatically increased. Today’s seatbelts already use this load-limiting to control how much force the belt applies in an accident, but the new system raises the number of settings from three to 11, with more possible in the future through over-the-air software updates.
This means the seatbelt operation can be more accurately tailored to the occupant and the nature of the impact. For example, a larger person in a high-speed crash would get a higher belt load to reduce the possibility of a head injury, while a smaller person in a minor fender-bender would get a lighter load to avoid injuring their ribs.
“The world first multi-adaptive safety belt is another milestone for automotive safety and a great example of how we leverage real-time data with the ambition to help save millions of more lives,” says Åsa Haglund, head of Volvo Cars Safety Centre. “This marks a major upgrade to the modern three-point safety belt, a Volvo invention introduced in 1959, estimated to have saved over a million lives.”
Developed at the Volvo Cars Safety Center crash lab, which has been staging accidents for 25 years, as well as analyzing more than 80,000 real-world crashes, the multi-adaptive safety belt will be introduced in the next EX60 electric Volvo in 2026. Hopefully, as it did in 1959, Volvo will also release the patent so other carmakers and drivers can benefit.
Cool to see the improvements that could be possible with this belt.
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