GM Reinvented The Seatbelt So You Can Sleep Safely In A Car
Sit back, relax and enjoy the ride.
General Motors has applied for a patent on a new type of seatbelt that addresses one of the biggest issues with the safety device.
The “Torso Seatbelt System” has been engineered to provide support in an accident for a passenger who is in a reclined position.
Regular seatbelts are designed to work on a body that is seated upright. The lap belt provides most of the support at the waist in a deceleration event, while the shoulder belt holds the upper torso against the seat back to prevent it from slamming into the dash, door, or adjacent passenger.
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The forces change as the body reclines, however, which makes it more likely that it will slip under the lap belt, an effect commonly known as “submarining.”
Racing cars that require a driver to sit low in the vehicle address this by adding a belt between the legs, but this design can be cumbersome to use and would be inconvenient in a passenger car.
GM’s idea is to put the lap belt on tracks that allow it to be repositioned so that it is strapped across the chest and tucked into a reclined passenger’s armpits. A submarining body would get caught on the belt there anyway, but this would keep the body from moving at all, which could help prevent injuries.
The patent describes the feature engaging when the seat is reclined more than 35 degrees and suggests that the bottom seat cushion would tilt up 20 degrees to provide additional support against forward motion.
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What it doesn’t say is if there have been any tests of the feature to show how effective it would be in the real world, or what might happen if the vehicle is struck from the rear. The patent also doesn’t mention autonomous driving, which holds the potential to allow even a driver to take a nap on the road, but GM isn’t the only automaker thinking about sleepy passengers.
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Ford has also applied for a patent covering an “Airbag Assembly for Reclined Vehicle Passengers” that addresses the issue in a different way.
The design covers a fully reclined passenger in a bed-like seat with two airbag-equipped belts strapped over them that would be positioned around their legs and torso. Additional airbags would be deployed around the bed’s perimeter to help cradle the body. This one doesn’t get into details about the submarining issue, but also isn’t as relevant as it was last year.
That’s because Ford has abandoned plans to launch a fully electric “bullet train” SUV equipped with an autonomous driving system capable of allowing a driver and passengers to sleep on the highway.
General Motors has also taken its foot off of the autonomous accelerator by shutting down its Cruise autonomous vehicle division, but continues to develop the semi-autonomous Super Cruise highway driving feature, which does not currently allow a driver to be inattentive when it is operating.
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As with all patents, it’s possible both of these remain on the drawing board and aren’t implemented in any production vehicles, but they do show how some of the engineering minds at GM and Ford are thinking.
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