In 1959, Volvo introduced the world to one of the most important inventions in the history of automotive safety, the three-point safety belt, which was first used in the Amazon.
The invention of the safety device is the work of Nils Bohlin, who first began his career as an aircraft engineer in 1942 at Saab, developing catapult seats and other safety equipment for pilots. He would later move to Volvo in 1958 to become a safety engineer.
Even though Volvo held the patent to the three-point safety belt, the company recognised its significance in improving traffic safety. As a result, the patent was made available to everyone, including other automakers, and the safety device is estimated to have saved over one million lives globally since.
This year’s marks the 60th anniversary of this milestone, and to underline that its sharing tradition goes beyond patents and physical products, Volvo recently launched the E.V.A. (Equal Vehicles for All) Initiative.
The project celebrates sixty years worth of sharing research into car safety with the world for no charge, with a dedicated website allowing virtually anyone to access research materials from 1970 until 2018.
“We have data on tens of thousands of real-life accidents, to help ensure our cars are as safe as they can be for what happens in real traffic. This means our cars are developed with the aim to protect all people, regardless of gender, height, shape or weight, beyond the ‘average person’ represented by crash test dummies,” said Lotta Jakobsson, professor and senior technical specialist at Volvo Cars Safety Centre.
All that data gathered over the years also highlighted a noteworthy issue with inequality in terms of car safety development: most automakers still produce cars based exclusively on data from male crash test dummies.
According to Volvo’s research, women are more at risk for some injuries in a car crash due to differences in, for example, anatomy and neck strength between the average man and woman. This would mean that women run a higher risk of getting injured in a traffic accident than men.
Volvo has been testing its vehicles with a female crash test dummy since 1995, starting with the only available small sized female frontal impact dummy, HIII 5th percentile, while a small sized side impact dummy, SID-IIs, was included in 2001.
Later on, Volvo developed a virtual model of a pregnant woman in the early 2000s, followed by a midsized female crash test dummy for whiplash evaluation in rear end impacts, as the only original car manufacturer in the co-development of EvaRID.
These discoveries, along with those in the past, are responsible for some of the safety technologies found in Volvos today. These include the WHIPS whiplash protection, side airbags and inflatable curtains, side impact protection system (SIPS) and Run-off Road Protection being some of them.
The idea of E.V.A. is simple: free-for-all knowledge sharing to make cars safer for everyone – regardless of your size, gender, or body shape. You can access the E.V.A. Initative here.
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When you are at the top of your game, that you don’t mind to share the pro tips to everyone else. Kudos, Volvo!
Volvo is a successful company. Geely could save them because they just had financial difficulty
I hope Volvo and Geely teach Proton how to make safe cars. There must be a reason why Sales of Preve and Iriz are bad despite 5 star rating
Your comment have some comprehension problems. Your 1st statement contradicts your 2nd statement. Even if you wanted to troll, do use some brains. Otherwise, please stay in school.
No contradiction to me at all
Do elaborate how both are not in contradiction. Please show proof.
You need to read more. You think Volvo was short of cash under Ford? Ford actually injected much more money into Volvo than Geely ever did. Volvo was losing its identity and innovativeness under Ford. Geely knew how to utilise Volvo’s advantages without trying to assimilate it with other car companies like Ford mistakenly did.
With Geely at the helm now, conti brands like Volvo and Mesidis no longer stingy with their tech and innovation. They alredi sharing super reliable safety features that wun kirr pipu, and oso high tech infosystem like MBUX which u alredi can find in new P1 cars.
This unlike Jepunis lords still wanna keep all their tech while giving scraps & outdated junks from their museum for sale in ASEAN. Dun need to talk about Jepunis safety features when it kirrs pipu instead of saving them.
China lord treats others fairly and equally, unlike Jepunis lords that treat others like dustbin to collect their trash.
In Malaysia, our Jepunis cars are under spec because companies like UMW and DRB don’t know how to negotiate a better deal for Malaysians.
When you are not good in business and you don’t know how to negotiate and demand higher spec and more safety features for Malaysians, then, you should not CKD.
It is the fault of CKD partners aka GLC like DRB and UMW that has failed Malaysians.
Why Camry in Australia got 9 airbags but Camry in Malaysia got 2 airbags until 2 years ago?
In Malaysia only? No. In Indonesia, I see the same underspecced crappy Japanese cars. In Thailand, I see the same underspecced crappy Japanese cars. Even Singapore, those not parallel imported I see the same underspecced crappy Japanese cars.
Are you saying our GLC like DRB and UMW has influence on the crappiness of Japanese cars in those countries? Why Australia got 9 airbags while we got 2? That’s because Aussies wouldn’t touch a Camry with 2 airbags if it was sold there. They don’t have blind brand loyalty, that will swallow any crap given. They don’t have Japanese fanboys that try to justify all the crap they get by blaming some others. Aussies knows crap and they won’t touch it. It is that simple but Japanese fanboys can’t see this past their mountain of crap because of blind brand loyalty.
Dustbin. That’s the right word to describe Perodua.
Smart responsibled locals choose Proton as the only option when we buy cars. Volvo car safety DNA in all new Proton X50 coming soon. Based on safe CMA platform riding the multiple award winning Volvo XC40 and Lynk&Co.
Volvo and safety, berpisah tiada. Just like P1 too.
Ethically responsible. Don’t see Yanks or Japanese or Chinese manufacturers doing the same.
First two parties, yes. But then do you realise Volvo Car belongs to China (Geely)?
Such a great company for sharing these crucial research data, and pdf is available for downloads on its website.
Our local manufacturer did improve tremendously over the years on automotive safety (Active and passive). Just hoping that accident data of accidents in Malaysia to be used to improve our road systems and reduce risk factors on the road.
Well done and kudos VOLVO! You see the big picture and share your safety knowledge for the good of Mankind. Salute!