Volvo improves the car seat belt with adaptability

Swedish brand Volvo Cars has unveiled an improved safety belt. The new multi-adaptive safety belt is a world-first technology designed to better protect people by adapting to traffic variations and the person wearing it, thanks to real-time data from the car’s sensors. 

Data input from interior and exterior sensors is used to customise protection, adapting the setting based on the situation and person’s profiles, such as their height, weight, body shape and seating position.

In less than a blink of an eye, the car’s system analyses the unique characteristics of a crash — such as direction, speed and passenger posture — and shares that information with the safety belt.

Modern safety belts use load limiters to control how much force the safety belt applies on the human body during a crash. The new safety belt expands the load-limiting profiles from three to 11 and increases the possible number of settings, enabling it to optimise performance for each situation and individual.

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.

The belt has been tested and further developed at the Volvo Cars Safety Centre crash lab where engineers can recreate almost any traffic accident and perform tests for real-world safety.

“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.”

The new safety belt will debut in the upcoming fully electric Volvo EX60 in 2026, but Volvo made automotive history when the first car fitted as standard with three-point safety belts was delivered on August 13 1959.

Since then, Swedish mechanical engineer and inventor Nils Bohlin’s invention has been fitted to millions of cars.

Here are some of the most important milestones in Volvo Cars’ child protection history:

1964 — First child seat prototype

1967 — Reversible front passenger seat with special child backrest

1972 — Volvo’s first rearward-facing child seat

1976 — The booster cushion — a world first from Volvo

1990 — World’s first integrated booster cushion

1999  —  World’s first rearward-facing seat for Isofix

2007 — World’s first two-stage integrated booster cushion

2014 — Inflatable child seat concept