Volvo Introduces Smart Seat Belts with Adaptive Resistance (3 photos)

The Swedish company Volvo has long earned a reputation as one of the leading experts in car safety, having become the founder of the introduction of many systems. For example, it was Volvo that began equipping serial cars with three-point seat belts back in 1959. And now the company's engineers have prepared a new iteration of interior belts.





For more than fifty years, Volvo engineers have collected and analyzed statistics on car accidents, accumulating a huge database of numerous parameters of more than 80 thousand drivers and passengers injured in accidents. From this sample it follows that each person in each specific accident needs a unique scenario of seat belt activation. However, belts on serial cars now have a maximum of three pretensioner modes. And the new adaptive seat belts from Volvo will have eleven of them!



The belt management system collects data from sensors outside and inside the car: the direction and speed of the impact, as well as the build and weight of each passenger, are taken into account. Based on this information, the electronics select the optimal parameters for the operation of the belt pretensioner, which reduces the risk of injury to a person. And subsequently, there will be even more scenarios for operation, because the software for the belt management system can be updated "over the air".



It has already been announced that adaptive belts with innovative pretensioners will first appear on the electric Volvo EX60 crossover, which will complement the existing gasoline model XC60 in the range. The premiere will take place this year, although the electric car is not expected to hit the market until 2026.