The good, the bad and the odd of car safety

Automotive safety firsts and fails

Making cars safer is always laudable and some innovations have gone on to save millions of lives.

However, not every idea has worked out as its inventor hoped.

From illuminated tyres to the three-point seatbelt, here’s a rundown of some of the best, worst and just plain unusual safety inventions over the years, presented in alphabetical order.

Airbag

The airbag is commonplace now and traces its origins all the way back to 1919, when dentists Arthur Parrot and Harold Round patented a system for protecting vehicle parts.

However, it wasn’t until after the Second World War that airbags were developed specifically for cars.

There were separate patents filed in Germany and the US in 1951 and 1952 respectively, that used compressed air to inflate a balloon to cushion the driver in a collision.

This type of airbag could not inflate quickly enough and the big shift came in 1967, when crash sensors were combined with gas-inflated airbags.

Chevrolet tried out airbags in a small number of cars in 1972, but it’s Mercedes-Benz that’s credited with making this device widely available in its S-Class in 1981 – and by 1992, every Mercedes sold had a driver’s airbag as standard.

Anti-lock brakes

The car was a late developer when it comes to anti-lock braking (ABS).

The idea of preventing wheels from skidding under heaving braking originated in the aircraft industry before motorcycle engineers took up the baton.

The Ferguson P99 Grand Prix car was an early pioneer of Dunlop’s Maxaret ABS system, while the 1966 Jensen FF introduced the benefits of this braking set-up to road cars.

Ford and Chrysler experimented with ABS in the 1970s, and Mercedes-Benz offered it as an option in its S-Class from 1978.

Crumple zone

Mercedes-Benz led the way in the development of the crumple zone for car safety.

It began work on this as far back as 1937, but it took until 1953 before the first example of this feature was used in the Ponton saloon.

However, it was Mercedes’ 1959 W111 Fintail saloon that fully embraced crumple-zone technology to better protect its occupants.

This created a safety cell around the passenger cabin, with deformable structures in the engine bay and boot to absorb and dissipate the energy of a crash.

Disc brakes

Disc brakes were first developed for use in cars by Lanchester in 1902.

The superior stopping power and heat dissipation offered by this design was offset by its cost and complexity compared to drum brakes.

Dunlop took up the challenge of developing a cost-effective system of disc brakes after the Second World War and proved the concept beyond doubt at the 1953 Le Mans 24 Hours, where Jaguar was the first to use them in the race on its C-type.

Crosley began offering disc brakes on its cars in 1949, while Citroën was the first to go into large-scale production with disc brakes as standard on its DS of 1955.

Headlight wipers

The advantages of being able to see out of the windscreen had long been understood and a variety of wipers were offered from the early days of motoring, notably Mary Anderson’s 1903 design.

It took a while longer for the benefits of clean headlights to catch up.

Chevrolet offered headlamp washers from 1968, but it was left to Saab to introduce bespoke wipers for the headlights of its recently launched 99 model in 1970.

By 1972, headlight wipers became mandatory in Sweden and Saab had perfected its design, with individual motors powering the blades for each headlamp.

Head restraint

Comfort was the initial thinking behind head restraints in cars, or headrests as they were known to begin with.

Benjamin Katz patented the headrest in the US in 1921 and others came up with their own designs for comfort that could be added to cars, either from the factory or as an add-on.

Safety tests in the 1960s proved head restraints reduced whiplash injuries and Volvo was the first to offer them to buyers in 1968.

Margit Engellau, a physiotherapist, realised the need for head restraints and persuaded her husband Gunnar, who was CEO of Volvo at the time.

Hit and run discs

With hit and run injuries becoming a common problem in US cities in the 1930s, a disc dispenser was suggested by lawyers.

If the unfortunate pedestrian was hit by the car’s bumper, it would automatically pop out a disc with the driver’s details.

The system never took off because its various flaws were quickly identified, such as drivers not filling up the dispenser with discs or using discs with false details.

The real answer was more prominent and legible numberplates on the front and rear of cars to make them easier to identify.

Horn

The use of horns on cars took off when the Red Flag Act was repealed in the UK in 1896.

With no need for someone walking in front of the car with a warning flag, another means of alerting others to the car’s presence was needed.

A variety of designs competed for drivers’ business, with a choice of a simple air horn with a squeezable bulb, the electric horn, or ones powered by gas flowing through the exhaust.

In the end, the simple, compact electric horn won the day, evolving from the ‘arooga’ klaxon into the effective button style that could be fitted almost anywhere, and worked by a button on the dash or steering wheel.

Illuminated tyres

It sounds like a nuclear experiment gone wrong, but Goodyear developed its Illuminated Tires as a safety and fashion accessory.

Using a string of small lights mounted inside the wheel, the tyre was made from Neothane – a translucent synthetic rubber.

The idea was the tyres would improve the car’s visibility at night and in bad weather.

However, tests showed the glowing tyres were a distraction for other road users and Neothane was too expensive for mass production.

The tyres also had an unfortunate habit of melting during hard braking, so this proposed safety aid never made it into production.

Impact bumpers

Bumpers started out as a rudimentary method of protecting the car from small knocks and preventing any unlucky pedestrians from more serious injuries.

Not much changed from the early days of the car, though some ideas were tried out such as water-filled bumpers that aimed to offer greater absorbency in a shunt.

Then, in 1971, the US introduced legislation that required all cars to be able to withstand a 5mph impact without damage.

Some manufacturers were already experimenting with impact-absorbing designs, such as the 1968 Pontiac GTO with its Endura foam bumper.

Others came up with extended bumper designs with chunky plastic and rubber inserts.

In-built child booster seat

Child seats for cars had been around since the 1930s, but safety only became a consideration in the 1960s with designs like Ford’s Tot-Guard with a large front cushion.

Properly fitted child seats didn’t arrive until the 1960s and didn’t become common until the mid-1980s.

Volvo took the idea of the child seat further with its integrated booster seat. This was the first of its type and was offered in the 850 and 900 models.

It worked simply by folding down the centre armrest in the back bench seat and pulling up the top section.

This formed a comfortable booster seat that used the existing headrest and three-point belt to keep small children safely in place.

Night panel

Saab introduced the Night Panel in 1993, originally called the Black Panel. This switched off the lighting on the dash at night to all but the most essential dials, to avoid distracting the driver.

The Night Panel was activated by the driver at the touch of a button and, in normal use, only illuminated the speedo.

When the indicators were used, these warning lights would come on, and the fuel gauge would become lit when the needle reached the reserve marker to warn the driver.

Padded dashboard

Claire L Straith was an American plastic surgeon who was an early advocate of safety equipment in cars.

As well as promoting seatbelt use as early as the 1930s, he also championed the idea of a padded dashboard to reduce facial injuries.

Straith’s ideas were taken up by Tucker for its 48 model, which became the first car with a padded dashboard as standard.

The Tucker 48 was also an early adopter for shatterproof glass, a passenger safety cell and an integrated roll-over bar to protect its occupants in a collision.

Parking aids

There have been many different aids to parking, such as fifth wheels that allow the car to pivot into a space and marker poles at the corners of the car to help the driver judge its extremities.

The first parking sensors were invented in the 1970s by Dr Tony Heyes, who used his research into helping visually impaired people to develop the idea.

Toyota was among the first to offer parking sensors on its 1983 Corona, but it wasn’t until the late 1990s that parking aids became common on more expensive cars.

Pedestrian catcher

In a bid to mitigate the effects of hitting a pedestrian rather than trying to prevent an accident in the first place, a number of pedestrian catchers were offered prior to the Second World War.

Some were little more than scaled down cow catchers like the ones used on railway engines, while others offered a little more cushioning with sprung cages or fabric nets that sprouted from the front bumper.

None of them caught on and car design improved after the war to better protect passers-by.

Pop-out windscreen

Evolving glass-manufacturing techniques in the 1940s had a significant influence on car design and safety.

As well as a move away from simple, flat windscreens to one-piece curved styles, the glass itself changed to offer shatterproof protection.

Tucker cars went even further and offered an optional pop-out windscreen. In the event of the glass being hit by one of the car’s occupants from the inside, the windscreen would detach from the car and fall out.

The idea was to reduce the impact from someone hitting the windscreen, but there was little interest in this and the Tucker 48 ended production after only 50 cars were built.

Radial tyres

Radial tyres were first designed as early as 1914, but none were put into production.

It took until Michelin came up with its own radial tyre, created by Maurice Mignol, that was unveiled in 1946.

Because it owned Citroën by then, Michelin used its new tyre for the 2CV and many cars quickly followed suit when the superior steering feel, comfort, fuel economy and wear resistance of radial tyres became obvious.

Radial tyres also provided better grip in the wet and shorter stopping distances to make them a real boon to driving safety.

Retractable mascot

Bonnet ornaments remained popular all the way to the 1960s, but a combination of more aerodynamic design and safety regulations did away with most.

Some car companies, however, valued their mascots too much to dispense with them, so they came up with retractable versions.

The most simple retractable mascots were ones like the Mercedes-Benz three-pointed star that simply folded flat against the bonnet.

Rolls-Royce came up with a more ingenious method of retracting its Spirit of Ecstasy mascot.

In the event of an impact, the mascot disappeared into the grille to prevent it causing any harm. This also doubled as an anti-theft measure when the car was parked.

Rollbar

Little heed was given to rollbars until the FIA (Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile) made them mandatory for Formula One cars for the 1961 season.

A handful of F1 cars had used rollbars before then, and the rules were updated in 1968 to dictate the rollbar must be at least 50mm (2in) above the driver’s helmet.

By the late 1960s, most forms of motorsport had adopted a rollbar and even full rollcages.

The threat of more stringent regulations for open-top cars in the US prompted Triumph to fit a T-bar to its Stag in 1970.

Later roadsters used pop-up roll-over bars for protection and hoops integrated into the design behind the seats.

Spare tyre pressurised windscreen washer

In a bid to make sure of a spare tyre that would rarely be used for its main purpose, Volkswagen decided to use the pressure from the spare to power the windscreen washers on the Beetle.

Earlier Beetles had relied on the driver pumping a button on the dash, so this new idea looked like a great labour-saving design.

The driver simply overinflated the spare tyre to power the washer and a valve in the pressure line prevented the tyre from becoming too deflated.

When you noticed the washers were not pumping very powerfully, it was time to reinflate the spare tyre, which also meant it was always ready to be used in the event of a puncture.

However, that could also leave you stranded with no windscreen washer.

Three-point seatbelt

The three-point seatbelt has been described as the single greatest contributor to road safety.

It was introduced by Volvo in 1959 and was designed by Nils Bohlin, and Volvo left the patent open so other car makers could use its new invention.

Prior to the three-point belt, there had been lap belts and sash belts, but Bohlin’s innovation was to bring these two designs together to better spread the forces of a collision across the occupant’s body.

This reduced injuries from the impact and held the person’s body in place more securely to prevent further injuries from hitting the windscreen or dashboard.

Traction control

The first production road cars to use traction control were all launched in 1987 and came from BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Toyota.

The system worked by applying the brakes to individual wheels and adjusting the throttle to reduce wheelspin when the car sensed one wheel was rotating faster than the other.

This led on to the development of the electronic stability programme (ESP) in 1995.

This not only guarded against unwanted wheel slip, but also helped steer by applying the brakes to keep it driving in the intended direction.