Seatbelt System That Works Before Impact
Nissan has completed development of a Brake-Operated Pre-crash Seatbelt designed to reduce occupant injury in the event of a collision. The new safety restraint system detects the possibility of a collision from the driver’s operation of the brake pedal and retracts the seatbelt in advance to help restrain the occupant immediately. If the crash is unavoidable, early seatbelt restraint can help maximize the effectiveness of the other occupant protection devices (such as airbags).
The revolutionary Brake-Operated Pre-crash Seatbelt, which will be installed in a new luxury model scheduled for release next year, operates by predicting vehicle and occupant behaviour based on how fast and how much the driver depresses the brake pedal during emergency braking. The system then progressively retracts the driver’s and front passenger’s seatbelts according to the speed and extent of brake pedal depression so as to help minimize occupant motion.
As a result, the seatbelt system helps the driver’s ability to execute collision avoidance manoeuvres because occupant motion due to braking action are kept to a minimum. Moreover, in the event that a collision is unavoidable, the Pre-crash Seatbelt provides faster occupant restraint.
This earlier restraint of the occupant helps maximize the effectiveness of seatbelt pre-tensioners, airbags and other safety equipment. The Pre-crash seatbelt is expected to have a substantial effect on helping to reduce the number of fatal and serious-injury accidents that currently occur, claims Nissan.
This new safety system is one of the outcomes product of Nissan ASV (Advanced Safety Vehicle) research activities which began in the 1990s. Other advanced ASV technologies include the world’s first Lane-Keeping Support system featured on the CIMA and the Adaptive Cruise Control system that is currently available on Nissan’s medium-sized and larger models.
Since 1995, Nissan has conducted research on real-world traffic accidents with the aim of achieving its goal to reduce the number of fatalities and serious injuries involving Nissan vehicles by half. The results of this research are used to develop highly effective safety technologies that are widely adopted on Nissan vehicles.
