Volvo is seeking to increase its fame for security with the discharge of a brand new “multi-adaptive security belt” that makes use of real-time knowledge from the automobile’s sensors to higher shield the particular person sporting it.
Seatbelt expertise hasn’t modified a lot since Volvo patented one of many first fashionable three-point security belts within the early Nineteen Sixties. However vehicles have modified considerably, including sensors, cameras, and high-powered computer systems to energy superior driver help options and anti-crash expertise.
Now, Volvo needs to place these devices to work for seatbelts. Fashionable security belts use load limiters to regulate how a lot drive the protection belt applies on the human physique throughout a crash. Volvo says its new security belt expands the load-limiting profiles from three to 11 and will increase the doable variety of settings, enabling it to tailor its efficiency to particular conditions and people.
As such, Volvo can use sensor knowledge to customise seatbelts based mostly on an individual’s top, weight, physique form, and seating place. A bigger occupant, for instance, would obtain the next belt load setting to assist scale back the danger of a head harm in a crash, whereas a smaller particular person in a milder crash would obtain a decrease belt load setting to scale back the danger of rib fractures.
Throughout a crash, Volvo says its automobiles’ security techniques will share sensor knowledge — corresponding to route, velocity, and passenger posture — with multi-adaptive seatbelts to find out how a lot drive to use to the occupant’s physique. And utilizing over-the-air software program updates, Volvo guarantees that the seatbelts can enhance over time.
Volvo has beforehand deviated from conventional practices to introduce new applied sciences meant to underscore its dedication to security. The corporate limits the highest velocity on all of its automobiles to 112 mph — notably under the 155 mph established by a “gentleman’s settlement” between Mercedes-Benz, Audi, and BMW to scale back the variety of fatalities on the Autobahn.
The brand new seatbelts will debut in the Volvo EX60, the automaker’s mid-sized electrical SUV which is scheduled to return out subsequent yr.