GOTHENBURG: Volvo Cars has unveiled a world-first multi-adaptive safety belt which will debut in the all-electric Volvo EX60 in 2026.
The new safety belt is designed to better protect people by adapting to traffic variations and the person wearing it, thanks to real-time data from the car’s advanced sensors.
For example, a larger occupant in a serious crash will receive a higher belt load setting to help reduce the risk of head injury.
A smaller occupant in a milder crash will receive a lower belt load setting to reduce the risk of rib fractures.
This is achieved by significantly increasing the number of so-called load-limiting profile variations, which manage the force applied to the occupants in the event of an accident.
And thanks to over-the-air software updates, it gets better over time.
New multi-adaptive safety belt
“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,” says Volvo Cars Safety Centre head Åsa Haglund.
“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.”
Modern safety belts use load limiters to control how much force the safety belt applies on the human body during a crash.
This new safety belt expands the load-limiting profiles from three to eleven and increases the possible number of settings.
Unlike traditional systems, the new multi-adaptive safety belt can utilise data from different sensors, including exterior, interior and crash sensors.
In less than a blink of an eye, the car’s system analyses the unique characteristics of a crash – such as direction, speed, and passenger posture – and shares that information with the safety belt.
Based on this data, the system selects the most appropriate setting.
