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Smarter seatbelts and tweaks to the New Car Assessment Program crash star-ratings aim to drive down vehicle and pedestrian deaths.
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Volvo, the inventor of the modern three-point seat belt, is still innovating the concept—now adding intelligence and the promise of over-the-air updates. In other crash-safety news, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is making regulatory changes to both force and entice active and passive safety advances.
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Volvo Multiadaptive Safety Belts essentially seek to better tailor the way today’s three-point seat belt restrains the wide variety of human forms, shapes, and sizes. A further refinement of the belt-tensioning and load-limiting features, this AI-driven system leverages the ever-expanding onboard computational power of modern cars like the electric Volvo EX60. Myriad sensors provide considerable information about the occupant’s size, weight, and body type. Then, when things go wrong, other sensors explain precisely what type of forces are acting on the vehicle and from what direction(s). The sophisticated new seat belt retractor then more precisely retracts and subsequently meters the belt webbing back out in such a way as to provide maximum protection while causing minimal harm. And as Volvo continues to study crashes, it expects to update the algorithms, reprogramming its smart retractors over the air.
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Via FMVSS No. 127, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration mandates new vehicles be capable of detecting other vehicles, objects, and pedestrians and then providing automatic emergency braking to either prevent hitting them or greatly reduce the damage or injury if avoidance is impossible. These features must be phased in on all new light vehicles by September 1, 2029.
In the interim years, NHTSA’s New Car Assessment Program will begin testing these features and basing its coveted star ratings in part on the results. This should force improvements in today’s lackluster performance (especially after dark). Other new testing that will impact star ratings includes lane keeping assist programs, blind-spot warning systems, and intervention to prevent lane changes into occupied lanes. Rear seat belt reminders will also be required in all new passenger vehicles beginning in September 2027, to increase usage of belts and further reduce fatalities and injuries.
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So far, little progress has been made in drafting rulemaking covering technologies for drunk driver detection (which may also be expanded to include other forms of impairment or distraction) and intervention. We’ve covered various approaches to drunk driver detection, ranging from passive breathalyzers that sample air near the steering wheel (with cameras to confirm passengers aren’t blowing sober exhales at it), to infrared spectroscopy touch-to-start buttons that work like blood oxygen sensors, to eye tracking, to measurements of steering wheel movements.
Perhaps the bigger question is what cars should do with the information. The ignition or shifter can be locked out if detection is confirmed before driving away (and in this case, how long should it wait before allowing a retry?). But what if that last drink kicks in halfway home? Safely pulling to the side of the road may remove the hazard of a drunk hitting someone else, but is the public really any safer if the tech ends up making an unsafe obstacle of their vehicle? We don’t expect to see final rulemaking on this thorny subject in the near future.
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I started critiquing cars at age 5 by bumming rides home from church in other parishioners’ new cars. At 16 I started running parts for an Oldsmobile dealership and got hooked on the car biz. Engineering seemed the best way to make a living in it, so with two mechanical engineering degrees I joined Chrysler to work on the Neon, LH cars, and 2nd-gen minivans. Then a friend mentioned an opening for a technical editor at another car magazine, and I did the car-biz equivalent of running off to join the circus. I loved that job too until the phone rang again with what turned out to be an even better opportunity with Motor Trend. It’s nearly impossible to imagine an even better job, but I still answer the phone…
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