Feed: Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics
Feed Link: https://www.engadget.com/
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Title: Volvo is introducing the first multi-adaptive seatbelt technology on
the EX60 EV

Date: Thu, 05 Jun 2025 07:00:17 +0000
Link: https://www.engadget.com/transportation/volvo...

Volvo has introduced a new seatbelt technology that can customize the
protection it provides in real time. The "multi-adaptive safety belt" system,
as the automaker is calling it, uses data input from both interior and
exterior sensors to change protection settings based on various factors. It
can take a person's height, weight, body shape and seating position into
account, as well as the direction and speed of the vehicle. The system can
communicate all those information to the seatbelt "in the blink of an eye" so
that it can optimize protection for the passenger.

If the passenger is on the larger side, for instance, they will receive a
higher belt load setting to reduce the risk of a head injury in the event of
a serious crash. For milder crashes, someone with a smaller frame will
receive a lower belt load setting to prevent rib injuries. Volvo didn't
specifically say if the system also takes the position of a seatbelt on women
into account, since it doesn't always fit right over a woman's chest.
However, the automaker explained that the system expands the number of load-
limiting profiles to 11. Load limiters control how much force a seatbelt
applies on the body during a crash. Typically, seatbelts only have three load-
limiting profiles, but Volvo expanding them to 11 means the system can better
optimize the protection a passenger gets.

Volvo used information from five decades of safety research and from a
database of over 80,000 people involved in real-life accidents to design the
new safety belt. The system was also created to incorporate improvements
rolled out via over the-air software updates, which the company expects to
release as it gets more data and insights.

"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," said 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."

Volvo engineer Nils Bohlin designed the modern three-point seatbelt and made
its patent available for use by other automakers. The company didn't say
whether it'll be as generous with the multi-adaptive safety belt, but the new
system will debut in the all-electric Volvo EX60 midsize SUV sometime next
year.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at
https://www.engadget.com/transportation/volvo...
adaptive-seatbelt-technology-on-the-ex60-ev-070017403.html?src=rss

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