Don't worry, don't be afraid when you start your journey
A gentle hand calmly raised the sails, the boat
It will transport you from the land of the night to the land of the day
Walk carefree towards the silent shore
—[Sweden] Jarmar Gulberi
(Hjalmar Gullbery, Nobel Prize judge)
Born from a mother's seat belt
The perfect fusion of Nordic minimalist design and modern safety concepts has been perfectly integrated here, rewriting an important part of the history of the automobile industry and rewriting the fate of countless modern car owners.
Today's 90 series Volvo owners, after pulling on the seat belt after getting on the car, will see the words "SINCE 1959" printed on the socket, if you do not delve deeply, you may think that this is only the year when Volvo Cars used seat belts, and if you know a little about the history of the automobile industry, you will understand that this year, Volvo Cars revolutionized the invention of three-point seat belts and put into use, while other cars are still in a helpless state.
It was a great and happy year.
It is described this way because for half a century since Ford built its first car in Detroit, USA, in 1896, owners have been driving without protective safety measures. Many car brands will naturally think about whether to use belts to fix the owner and passengers, such as two-point or Y-shaped seat belts, but their effect is not satisfactory, most of the casualties in car accidents are due to the lack of safety fixed protective measures for owners and passengers.
After Volvo's three-point seat belt design came out, it shocked the entire booming automotive industry at that time. In 1958, Volvo engineer Nils Boleyn in Detroit invented the three-point harness, which spans the abdomen below and across the shoulders, making it ideal from a physiological point of view. Nils Boleyn was inspired by this thanks to his nurse wife, who used her medical experience to inspire her husband how to design a full range of safety protections, so that this is a veritable "seat belt born of maternal love".
The perfect fusion of Nordic minimalist design and modern safety concepts has been perfectly integrated here, rewriting an important part of the history of the automobile industry and rewriting the fate of countless modern car owners.
What is even more shocking to the outside world is that after Volvo registered a patent for the design of the seat belt, it did not translate into profit calculations, but opened it to all car manufacturers for free and called on peers to use it, only because this is a bottom line that can fundamentally protect the safety of people in the car. Volvo's nordic culture is presented here in a way that transcends business interests and even influences its own global strategy.
Just over two decades ago, the fledgling Volvo struggled to be acquired by an American automaker, and now Volvo has put aside its patent revenues and gained a new understanding of the Nordic corporate image of its automotive peers, and is regarded as a modern business hero.
The fanatical world before seat belts
If you count the most famous car accidents in automobile history, there must be that famous scene from the writer Fitzgerald's masterpiece "The Great Gatsby". After the heroine Daisy drives a car to kill a strange pedestrian, Gatsby takes over the steering wheel, as described in the novel at the time, "All in all, Daisy desperately stepped on the accelerator." I asked her to stop, but she couldn't stop, so I had to pull on the emergency brakes. Then she fainted on my knee, and I took it and drove forward. After a violent impact, Gatsby willingly replaced her as a "scapegoat."
Careful readers will find that the novel is set in the 1920s, in the era of economic recovery after World War I, the era of the national automobile has declared the atmosphere of the era of drunken fans, all cars are proud of exaggerated shapes and complicated interiors, but safety is left behind. The same is true of the car driven by Gatesby in the novel, a spacious and comfortable sofa-like seat, naturally there is no headrest protection, and the safety design is very different from today's WPHIS (Crew Head and Neck Protection System), not to mention the "ugly" seat belt design.
Obviously, the car accident in the novel, which represents the automobile world before the seat belt, prioritizes speed and beauty, and promotes a large number of low-cost car brands through standardized parts production. Automobile life represents an important symbol of the rise of the middle class in the first half of the 20th century, giving this large group a comfortable and prosperous image of life. On the car advertising posters at that time, we even saw some Italian-made cars, using rattan seats to provide a cool experience for car owners, which was very attractive to the people on the Mediterranean coast in summer, and to this day, tourists can still see such "classic cars" in the streets of Monaco, Cannes and other cities.
At that time, Born in Stockholm in 1927 Volvo Cars, or a rising generation, the two founders Gustav Larsen and Isar Gerbrison are car enthusiasts, they ate a lobster meal together immediately finalized the company's development plan, the first ten years, Volvo car design inspiration is mainly from the United States, Gebrison also specially sent a group of Swedish engineers and technicians to the United States famous motor city of Detroit for further study, for Volvo injected the American car in the sports design concept and technology. But Volvo's genes determine that they have never forgotten the cultural soil behind them. The founding team rejected the popular "patchwork" approach to car building, from part design to supplier selection to assembly into cars, and in the early days of the automotive industry, Volvo manufacturing almost established a synonym for high-quality cars.
Since Volvo used three-point seat belts in 1958, car peers have followed suit, and in order to reassure peers and consumers, Volvo has even gone to great lengths to promote this free technology. At the 1967 American Traffic Safety Conference, Volvo made a "28,000 Accident Report", which was based on vehicle safety accidents in Sweden, in which the number of casualties in Volvo vehicles equipped with seat belts was reduced by about 50%-60%. This explained to the outside world how the three-point seat belt greatly reduced the casualty rate in vehicle safety accidents, so from 1968, the United States stipulated that the seat facing the front of the car must be equipped with a seat belt.
More than 40 years after the invention of the three-point seat belt, Volvo's traffic accident research team conducted one of the largest statistics, more than 1 billion cars worldwide equipped with three-point seat belts, an invention that reduced the number of casualties caused by car crashes by 75%. Today, the total length of seat belts produced globally can circle the Earth's equator 250 times a year, saving 2 million lives a year.
Michiel van Ratingen, Secretary General of Euro NCAP, a vehicle safety testing organisation, said: "Three-point seat belts remain the world's number one safety technology. Wherever you go, the introduction of standard seatbelt installation and seatbelt legislation coincides with a significant decline in driver and passenger casualty rates. In addition, the invention of the three-point seat belt has enabled many other safety innovations, from airbags to child restraint systems, from which car users can benefit every day. ”
Seat belts extend out of love and respect
Starting with the three-point seat belt, Volvo's actions in protecting drivers and passengers have become more and more exciting, in 1972 Volvo launched the world's first well-designed rear-facing child safety seat, in 1976 the first child-elevated seat, in 1997 the head and neck protection system WPHIS was released, in 1999 the first ISOFIX child safety seat was invented... All of these designs that make the seat truly a "car seat" are eventually transformed into the safety standards of the entire automotive industry, passing through the world and protecting the world. Volvo has become synonymous with the inventor of automobile safety, and has silently fulfilled the "zero casualty" promise that "no one has a major casualty accident because of driving a new Volvo".
Starting with the three-point seat belt, Volvo's actions in protecting drivers and passengers have become more and more exciting, in 1972 Volvo launched the world's first well-designed rear-facing child safety seat, in 1976 the first child-elevated seat, in 1997 the head and neck protection system WPHIS was released, in 1999 the first ISOFIX child safety seat was invented... All of these designs that make the seat truly a "car seat" are eventually transformed into the safety standards of the entire automotive industry, passing through the world and protecting the world. Volvo has become synonymous with the inventor of automobile safety, and has silently fulfilled the "zero casualty" promise that "no one has a major casualty accident because of driving a new Volvo".
Even in the face of the three-point seat belt that has been born for 60 years, Volvo's safety concept is still thinking about how to make it more human and even smarter. The first major breakthrough occurred in 1969, when Volvo introduced an inertial reel puller that helped reduce belt slack while providing better comfort, with the addition of front seat belt reminders in 1971 and the introduction of three-point rear seat belts a year later.
In volvo history, there have been engineers trying to develop a "semi-passive" seat belt, when the driver enters the seat or leaves, it will automatically slide into the socket or automatically disengage, although this design did not eventually enter mass production, but it can still be seen that engineers for the ultimate pursuit of human safety, and another meaning of this thinking is the protection of driving habits in different countries and regions with different levels of global civilization, there are data that show that there are still nearly a quarter of the countries with a seat belt wearing rate of less than 50%, and there are still about 62% of the seat belt wearing rate. Low- and 46% of middle-income countries do not mandate seat belts for drivers and occupants. That's why, just a three-point harness, there's still plenty of room for Volvo's safety engineers to think about exploring.
Today, with the help of city safety system, Volvo's three-point seat belt has entered the intelligent level, when the car radar detects a collision hazard in front of the car during driving, the seat belt will automatically contract and fix the driver's body, while other safety measures will also be activated for all-round safety protection. It's hard to imagine that this technology first appeared in testing in 1987, when engineers went all out to conquer pre-tensioner technology, and the idea behind this technology was to activate the seat belt if a collision was inevitable, and to tighten the seat belt even if the driver was wearing bulky clothes. After years of testing, the force limiter, which reduced the risk of upper body injury, debuted in 1996 and made a series of advances in the 2000s, including seat belt reminders for all seats and a pre-tensioner activated in the event of a rollover accident.
Today, Volvo cars are equipped with electric retractable front seat belts that can be activated earlier and more frequently than traditional pre-tensioners. Turning reactive into proactive, evolving three-point harnesses over the past 60 years epitomize Volvo's forward-looking safety philosophy.
The future, of course, is also included in Volvo's philosophy. In 2018 Volvo unveiled the 360C Concept, conceived as an alternative to first-class air travel, a fully autonomous concept that offers the possibility of relaxing, working and even sleeping. And the three-point harness has evolved into a safety blanket here, says Lotta Jakobsson, an expert at volvo Safety Centre: "It monitors your position and adjusts accordingly to make sure it's in contact with the strongest parts of the body." "It's based on Nils Boleyn's safety principles, but is suitable for people lying down while traveling."
Volvo, which is so obsessed with security and an important part of the map of human life in the future, wants to understand this, perhaps to return to its cultural origins, the Viking culture in Scandinavia. From the Norse mythology that took shape in the 2nd century AD to the endless study of modern Nordic society today, it is shown that there is an advanced emphasis on gender equality in Viking culture, they believe that life is equal and that they are all great beings between natural heaven and earth, and that the spirit of human respect is not only male, but also female and child.
In the modern spirit of Sweden, there is a word called Lagom, which means "steady", "rational", "fair", "reasonable", the etymology of this word can be traced back to the early Viking society, the legend is this: the Vikings sat around the campfire, drank the mead in the horn, they were considerate, caring for each other, sharing happiness and hardship, always remembering that they did not drink too much, and then passed the horn cup to the next person. It is believed that the Viking age of The Saget om can be roughly translated as "passing (wine glass)", which gradually evolved over time into Lagom. The deep instincts of consensus and rules-abiding have infiltrated modern democracies, free education for all and tax redistribution, all of which ensure that Swedes can treat each other equally, regardless of place of origin and occupation.
At the beginning of the 21st century, Newsweek magazine ranked Sweden second on the list of countries with the most liveable women; Save the Children ranked Sweden third on the "most livable as mothers"; and Sweden's childcare was the cheapest in the Nordic region, with 82% of Swedish children entering daycare at 12 to 18 months of age, the highest number in the world.
Backed by this historical, cultural and social atmosphere, it explains why Volvo Cars has put quality and safety first since its birth, which is a life concept imprinted in the depths of the spirit, from automotive products to social systems. From the three-point seat belt to the seat safety design, all safety tests not only collect data from male drivers and occupants, but also have a large amount of data on pregnant women and children as a reference, and even at the expense of a little comfort, to ensure that the interior environment is friendly and safe for pregnant women and children.
In 2019, on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the introduction of the three-point seat belt, Volvo opened the Central Digital Library to share its safety technology data and materials free of charge with peers and the public, just as Volvo opened its three-point seat belt technology 60 years ago, and today Volvo continues to be inclusive, open and equal on the road to improving global road safety.
Facing car safety with a humanistic and caring eye, rather than the eyes of engineers, Volvo implants the most fundamental concept for future car life - love and respect for life.
(This article is the original of "Heyan Reading Car", without authorization, it may not be reproduced)