The EX60 senses a passenger's size and weight, determining how much force to use.
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How Volvo’s new adaptive seat belts will reduce injuries during a crash
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As someone who has had a nice stripe of bruise laid across his torso from shoulder to hip by a seat belt in a crash, I think this is extremely good.
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Fun Fact: "Hugin" is indeed one of Odin's ravens, but the name means "thought" (Munin, the other raven, means "memory").
Seat belts are still not mandatory in New Hampshire, either in the front or in the back. Live free or die indeed.
Seat belts are still not mandatory in New Hampshire, either in the front or in the back. Live free or die indeed.
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Volvo did not invent the seat belt, it innovated by proposing a three-point fasting method. Be careful.
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Wow, a good news story in tech...very refreshing. Unless, of course this feature will become subscription-based next year at this time!
The tech bros can't crash soon enough so we can get back to creating and improving things for real again.
The tech bros can't crash soon enough so we can get back to creating and improving things for real again.
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OptimusP83
Ars Praefectus
The Spinal Tap jokes just write themselves.
Whoa, now. Next you're going to tell me tha Al Gore didn't invent the internet!
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KoshcheiTheDeathless
Ars Centurion
I'd be careful about "No other automaker has the same commitment to road safety as Volvo"; Mercedes, as a comparison, invented the hydraulic brake system, the crumple zone and passenger safety cell, collapsible steering column, pretensioned seatbelts, air bags, ABS, stability control, pre-safe collision detection system, and others.
This is a legitimate advance on Volvo's part, and I'm not trying to detract from it, but ease up on the hyperbole please. Lots of auto manufacturers have improved safety.
This is a legitimate advance on Volvo's part, and I'm not trying to detract from it, but ease up on the hyperbole please. Lots of auto manufacturers have improved safety.
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So they invented the three point seat belt?
Invention means very little to me, personally. Putting it into practice matters far more.
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This is cool stuff. I think most people would consider the seatbelt a solved problem, and I'm glad there are people who don't.
Other things that could be improved about the seatbelt: greater adjustability for the comfort of people of differing heights (everyone hates a belt that chafes at the neck), and sufficient adjustability that we don't need booster seats for kids.
Other things that could be improved about the seatbelt: greater adjustability for the comfort of people of differing heights (everyone hates a belt that chafes at the neck), and sufficient adjustability that we don't need booster seats for kids.
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This is the thing that's agonizing. So much investment has gone into [some shit mommy used to do for you] as a service, [whatever] as an app, gig economy exploitation, and chatbots that I think we're falling behind on tangible, real technological innovation that materially improves lives.
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This is fantastic as an idea, but automotive software has been crap lately. Is the software safe? This better not be released half-baked. I don't want it in my car until its one-and-only-version is exactly what it needs to be.
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That was done so the writer could have some experience comparing seat belts on the plane vs those in the car
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OptimusP83
Ars Praefectus
Also as someone who, when distracted while driving as a wee 16 year old lad, drove his Saab partway into a ditch, hit a driveway embankment with enough force to bend the unibody chassis like a banana and catch a couple feet of air, caught the edge of a tree on hte other side of the driveaway embankment hard enough to lodge the side light pod into the trunk, and then came to a fairly sudden rest against some smaller trees in the woods just past that larger tree... I also support these safety developments.
The funny thing is, I still VERY vividly remember ragdolling with the seatbelt holding me in place with what felt like a very extreme amount of pressure on my shoulders and torso. The airbags didn't fire due to the very acute angle I glanced off of the tree which was probably for the best as the seatbelt held me quite firmly in place. But yea, even at that young age where I was mostly made of rubber, I'm sure I was sore and bruised up. And I know I had some friction burns on my shoulder from the force of the belt after it locked up.
Anything that can be done to safely reduce the "sudden stop" of a car accident (including the airbags firing at your face and chest) is a worthwhile endeavor, IMO.
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OptimusP83
Ars Praefectus
Saab developed a passive system (amusingly called Saab Active Head Restraint)in their seats in the late 90s to reduce whiplash in the case of rear impact collisions. It was actually a pretty clever system: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saab_Active_Head_Restraints. RIP Saab...
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It seems your list of achievements by Mercedes does not stand up to scrutiny very well. I see that ABS, airbags and ESP have complex histories that do not fit Mercedes "inventing" them. No idea how you claim that Mercedes invented hydraulic brakes. (Did not look into all your claims.)
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How is the Volvo system new or different from other cars ?
I think since the below was implemented a year or so ago, Rivian or BMW or Lucid might already have the same implementation
I think since the below was implemented a year or so ago, Rivian or BMW or Lucid might already have the same implementation
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My dad and I had the good fortune to meet Col Stapp when I was stationed in New Mexico in 1990. He gave a talk at ENMU about what he did for safety. His work is what what came up with the shoulder belts.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Stapp
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Stapp
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You'd have benefited from some side curtain airbags, it sounds like. Airbag triggers are more than just the front bumper, nowadays. We also underrate how vastly we have improved the structural rigidity of cars in the last 30 years. My accident was a short flight into a deep arroyo, and I hit hard enough that the rear hatch of a 1995 Grand Cherokee popped open and couldn't close again, and several doors couldn't be opened. Now? The front end would have crumpled, but the body would have been fine, doors would have opened.
Heartily cosigned. Glad I got that out of the way when I was still nice and rubbery. I had abrasions on my forearms from the airbag too, and that's much less of an issue these days.
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Does the seatbelt revert to ordinary 'dumb' behavior if the system itself is damaged in a crash? Though I suppose if the crash is severe enough to prevent the HuginCore from acting in time, you're probably dead anyways.
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and a whole bunch of auto manufacturers steadfastly fought against those safety innovations.
Weirdly enough: all of them US based auto manufacturers.
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The Volvo system introduces eleven increments based on weight and force applied to the body. As TFA notes, previous modern systems had three, including Tesla:
Count them! One, two, three! Three beautiful settings, ah ah ahhh!
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Fascinating guy. I worked at Holloman AFB for a while and marveled at a) the scope and breadth of safety systems for both aircraft and cars came out of his research and b) how much they let you get away with back in the Cold War days. I feel like the entire safety office would shit themselves inside out if you proposed, in the modern era, to fire a rocket sled down that track and see what happened when you threw on the brakes.
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Apparently they increased the number of levels of restraint (from 3 to 11, stated in TFA, though probably that doesn't capture the whole scope).
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Thanks for the update
So it looks like it could be implemented via a software update given the sensors that already are in the seats etc
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Also: going to Stockholm for a couple days with jetlag? Fine city and all, but eh..... maybe its interesting if you've never experienced a country that has winter or something?
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OptimusP83
Ars Praefectus
Unless Mercedes owned Bosch, they didn't "invent" ESP. First to implement, yea sure.
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Anybody else remember those terrible motorized shoulder belts in the 1980s/90s, or the seat belts attached to the doors? They counted as an automatic safety system so they didn't have to put in airbags. So glad I never wrecked in one of those cars. Deer don't count, minor front end damage. But yes, I have endured functional tests of crumple zones and side-impact beams in other cars made in the pre-airbag era.
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Five-ish years ago there was an Ars article about this - and in fact asking if Ars should do this!
It's very typical in the automotive review industry, and the tradeoff that was discussed was that on the one hand, accepting flghts/etc. does give some impression that the author might have a bias (or could even create a bias), but on the other hand for budget reasons accepting flights means they can do way more of these kinds of articles. Dr Gitlin has a good enough reputation here that the consensus was that it's better to have more articles, and we trust that the bias will be minimal.
Edit: almost ten years ago! https://meincmagazine.com/cars/2017/03/ars-asks-how-do-you-feel-about-junkets-for-auto-coverage/
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Not only the partnership with Bosch, but also I note the work that was going on in Japan (from wikipedia).
I'm annoyed the guy claiming Mercedes is/was a super innovator gets a bunch of thumbs from everyone thinking how he was seeing right through the spin, the dude used a chatbot or some crap to make his list, it was massively misleading. Misinformation winning the internet fight.
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OptimusP83
Ars Praefectus
Yea curtain airbags would have been helpful. I honestly can't recall if I hit my head on anything, but I don't think I did. My memory isn't good enough to recall those details from an accident nearly 30 years ago.
We went to see the car a few days later at the body shop insurance had it towed to and the guy there walked us around and was visibly amazed at how well the car appeared to have fared and how uninjured I was. The doors not lining up correctly and the body panels rippling all along the roofline were the only signs that the car was properly totaled. My parents were understandably upset, but I appreciate that, at the time, they were far happier that I was safe. And technically my distraction was due to being on the phone with THEM at the time so its not like I was being some completely derelict moron. I was driving WAY too fast on a backroad I'd driven dozens of times, at night, talking with them about where my uncle was who had gotten lost on his way from the airport to visit us and I was supposed meet him at a park to have him follow me, but we got all mixed up and my parents were explaining to me where he was when I forgot to slow down for a turn...
Excuses, excuses, yea...
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