- Volvo created the three-point seatbelt in 1959 and is about to give it a facelift.
- New seatbelt adapts to users’ sizes, shapes and weights using sensor data.
- Next year’s electric EX60 SUV is first in line for the ‘multi-adaptive safety belt.
It’s no exaggeration to say the three-point seatbelt Volvo launched way back in 1959 was a game-changer for car safety. It’s saved millions of lives, having been adopted industry-wide, but Volvo thinks it can make it better using modern technology, and will fit the resulting equipment to next year’s EX60 electric SUV.
The belt Volvo debuted the year Caddy fins literally peaked has changed a bit over the years, of course. It was static, whereas new ones have inertia reels and pretensioners, improving both comfort and safety. But what they all have in common is they treat each user as if they’re average-sized clones of one another.
Related: Volvo To Introduce 5 Models In 2025, EX60 Coming In 2026
Volvo’s new ‘multi-adaptive safety belt’ does things differently. It users sensors to work out the height, weight and body shape of the person wearing the belt. It even knows what position they’re sitting in and from what direction a car is hit in the event of an accident, and how severe the impact is.
The belt’s brain uses all of that data to tailor the amount of load it sends through the belt in the event of a crash. Where most modern seatbelt have three available load limiter profiles, Volvo’s version has 11. The automaker says the car can analyze the characteristics of a crash “in less than a blink of an eye” and tweak the seatbelt accordingly.
A larger passenger or driver will get a higher belt load setting to cut down on the risk of head injury, but a smaller occupant who hasn’t got as much mass to contain will be given a reduced belt load setting to minimise the risk of rib fractures.
Volvo has developed and tested the new belt at its Safety Centre crash lab in Sweden but says the feature should become even more useful at reducing injuries as time goes on as more real data is gathered and improvements are rolled out via OTA updates.
Next year’s EX60, an electric rival for BMW’s Neue Klasse iX3, will be the first Volvo to benefit from the tech, but it’ll be added to subsequent new models when they enter production.
