[Aika Auto Industry News Original]
Recently, IIHS (American Highway Safety Insurance Association) held the first seat belt warning evaluation for SUV models, but unexpectedly, among the 26 models participating in the evaluation, only two models received excellent ratings, only five models received good ratings, seven models were rated average, and as many as 12 models were rated as poor, including Audi, Volkswagen, Volvo and many other SUV models. What kind of project makes so many models face the results of unqualified assessments? And which models stand out?
How important is a seat belt warning?
Since the birth of the three-point seat belt has experienced more than half a century of development, the vast majority of drivers have developed the habit of using seat belts. In the United States, however, about 1,500 people are still killed in accidents each year because they do not wear seat belts. IIHS research shows that an effective seatbelt warning system would save the lives of these 1,500 people, while automakers only need to extend the time of warning sign reminders, or increase the volume of warning sounds, or extend the duration of warning tones.
Previous IIHS tests have shown that rear passengers who do not wear seat belts pose a significant threat to front passengers in the event of a collision.
Federal law in the United States stipulates that seatbelt warning alerts must include a warning tone lasting a total of 4-8 seconds and a warning sign that lasts at least 60 seconds after the driver unfastens the seat belt. Although almost all models meet the requirements of federal law before leaving the factory, IIHS believes that more obvious and persistent alarms can increase the use of drivers and occupants who do not wear seat belts, in short, without seat belts, the system will "noisy" until you fasten them.
Rear passengers who do not wear seat belts will not only seriously squeeze the living space of the front passengers, but also collide in the car due to inertia.
IIHS crash test for rear passengers not wearing seat belts
At present, taxi application developers like Didi and Uber are increasingly prosperous, and most users choose to sit in the back seat, thus avoiding the trouble of wearing seat belts in the co-driver. As everyone knows, in the event of an accident, the failure of the rear passenger to wear a seat belt will also lead to serious consequences. Only automakers who increase the volume and duration of the warning sound can encourage passengers to use seat belts.
According to the video released by IIHS, the seatbelt warning assessment was carried out in an enclosed venue.
How does IIHS conduct seatbelt warning ratings?
In order to encourage car brands to adopt more effective and consistent standards, the new IIHS protocol mainly judges the seat belt reminder function based on factors such as the volume of the beep code, the duration of the beep code, etc., and is divided into four levels of "G", "A", "M" and "P" according to the different results, which represent excellent, good, average and poor respectively.
The tester will sit in the front and rear seats of the test vehicle and try to unfasten the seat belt, recording the duration of the warning.
To get a good rating, the vehicle needs to travel at a speed of about 10 km/h (6 mph) When the system detects that any passenger is not wearing a seat belt, the seat belt is not worn, and the warning signal appears in the dashboard, roof panel or center console, and the warning sound should follow.
In addition to recording the duration of the alert, the tester also records the size of the alert tone and compares it with the ambient tone.
For warning tones, IIHS also makes a clear statement. The warning sound must be loud enough to be heard by the occupants at least in noisy environments. If the front passenger is detected not wearing a seat belt, the warning signs and warning tones must last at least 90 seconds. If a passenger in the second row who has previously wore a seat belt unfastens his seat belt, the warning must last at least 30 seconds, and the second row passenger must also be provided with a warning sign that the seat belt is not wearing.
How important is seatbelt warning
Vehicles that meet all the requirements in the front row but do not meet the second row seat belt warning requirements will receive a good rating, but if the warning requirements for the front passenger not wearing a seat belt are not met, but the warning tone for the front passenger who is not wearing a seat belt is equal to or longer than 8 seconds, then it will receive a general rating, and if the warning tone is less than 8 seconds, then whether other conditions are met, it will receive a bad rating.
One of the official videos of the IIHS SeatBelt Warning Evaluation (with subtitles)
It's not hard to see why only two models can get excellent rating results, because to get excellent rating results, it is necessary to have a special reminder in the car to warn whether the seat belt is fastened. It happens that many Subaru models have a similar configuration on the roof, which is not difficult to understand why the two models that received excellent ratings in this rating are Subaru.
How are these models performing?
Of the 26 small and medium-sized SUVs that participated in the review, only Subaru's Ascent and Forester received excellent ratings. The other five models received good reviews: hyundai Palisade and Tucson, Nissan Loulan, Pathfinder and Rogue. In addition, seven models received general reviews: the Jeep Guide, the Liberty And Wrangler, the Mazda CX-5 and CX-9, the Toyota REV4 and the Highlander. All that remains are 12 models with poor ratings, namely the Audi Q3, Buick Encore, Chevrolet Equinox and Trader, Honda CR-V, HR-V and Pilot, Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross, Volkswagen Atlas and Volvo XC40.
Many of the 12 models with poor ratings are sold in the domestic market at the same time.
The 26 models all meet the requirements of the IIHS in the form of untied seatbelt beep codes, but there are other aspects where they do not meet the standard. Eleven of the 12 models with poor ratings had warning tones that were either not long enough or too loud. The only mitsubishi Eclipse Cross with a standard sound length and volume, but only in the driver's seat, when the front passenger unfastens his seat belt, there is no alarm sound, only a warning sign.
Only four of the seven models that received the general rating met the warning volume and duration requirements.
Four of the seven models that received the general rating actually met the requirements for the volume and duration of the warning sound, but missed the opportunity to get a good opportunity due to reasons such as not turning on the warning sound in time, and the other three models lost the problem of insufficient warning sound volume.
Two of the five models that were rated good did not have a second seat belt warning.
Of the five models that were rated as good, The Hyundai Tucson and Nissan Loulan did not have seat belt warnings in the second row, and Nissan Rogue, Pathfinder and Hyundai Palisade all missed excellent ratings because the second row did not wear seat belts for too short a warning time.
Both models that have won the best are from the same brand.
IIHS Seatbelt Alert Assessment Official Video No. 2 (with subtitles)
The only two subaru models that meet all the requirements remain, which, at the prescribed test speed, detect that a driver is not wearing a seat belt, the vehicle will emit a warning tone four times the volume of the driving noise, and until the seat belt is fastened, neither the warning sign nor the warning sound will stop until the conditions are met that all the occupants in the car have fastened their seat belts.
The second row of seatbelt warning signs above his head is the secret to Subaru's excellence.
According to the official introduction of IIHS, it is not difficult to get a good rating, and it will not bring cost increases to car companies, even in models with poor evaluations, most models can raise the rating results to general by simply extending the duration of the warning tone.
Many models also have a second row passenger seat belt warning function, but most of them only appear in the dashboard, only to warn the driver.
Conclusion: One might argue that IIHS's assessment of seat belt warnings is too critical, but safety is no small matter, and any effort to improve safety is valuable. Admittedly, IIHS does send some pressure to automakers through the evaluation of seat belt warnings, forcing automakers to adopt more demanding seat belt warning systems, and larger tones and longer warning times can indeed increase the use of seat belts, but also promote the use of seat belt buckles (a device that makes vehicles mistakenly think that seat belts have been fastened) from another level. If so, it is hoped that the car manufacturer will add a judgment of the gravity of the seat in the logic of the seat belt warning system: if the seat belt is in a buttoned state all year round, when the seat seat is monitored, the warning will continue to be continued, and only when the seat is seated, the seat belt will be fastened, which is the logic of the correct use of the seat belt.
How well does the assessment perform?