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08 Nov 2017
Posted by admin 
When we jump in our cars to go to work, pop to the shops or visit family and friends, we don’t really pay a huge amount of attention to all bits and pieces that go into making us safe. And perhaps we should. After all, if just one of those bits of kit doesn’t work properly then the results could be disastrous.
Of course, cars haven’t always had the plethora of safety devices that they have today. In fact, to begin with, cars had very few safety features at all, and you might be shocked to learn just how unsafe they were.
In the following infographic you’ll see the patents for some of the most important inventions in car safety that have saved millions of lives for over 100 years. While most of the car safety patents on the graphic are somewhat vintage, there are a few modern patents on there that highlight just how far technology and safety standards have progressed over the years. There are a couple of patents on there that didn’t pass, and we can all be thankful for that- you’ll see why!
You can view all the full patents under the infographic.
CLICK ON THE GRAPHIC TO SEE A LARGER VERSION
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Interview With Euro NCAP
Alongside creating the graphic, we also spoke with Euro NCAP, the organisation behind the safety ratings for vehicles. Here’s what they had to say…
What would you consider to be the most vitally important safety feature invented for cars to date?
Unquestionably the seatbelt. It sounds outdated but the seatbelt remains the single-most important feature of car safety. If an occupant is not properly restrained, the situation is uncontrolled and other safety features like airbags cannot work properly. More recently, electronic stability control (ESC) offers great benefits in crash avoidance.
What kind of testing must potential safety features go through before they’re approved?
Before cars are sold in Europe they have to be type-approved, or ‘homologated’. This process covers everything from emissions and noise to crash safety. There are few tests of individual safety features. They are integrated into the vehicle design and that is then tested.
Euro NCAP is not an approval authority. We cannot dictate whether or not a car, or a particular safety feature, can be sold. We do tests which are in addition to type-approval and focus solely on safety. By rating the cars and providing consumers with information, we put pressure on manufacturers to improve their vehicles, for fear of being left behind by the competition.
What do you anticipate being the next major evolution of car safety? When do you think we’ll see this?
We are already seeing lots of new driver assistance systems appearing on the market: autonomous emergency braking; lane keep assistance, speed assistance. In the coming years, these will become more sophisticated and new features will be added like autonomous steering. These are all important safety features in their own right but they also form the basis for automated vehicles: a car that drives itself will need to have a wide range of such safety features which can work robustly on the road.
Do you think self-driving cars will ever really be safe enough for general use?
Yes, and the safety potential is huge, as so many accidents are caused by driver error. Introduction will probably be rapid but will focus on individual driving scenarios, at least to begin with: highway assistance, traffic jam assistance etc, where the car can take over from the driver in some defined situations.
Find out more on the Euro NCAP website
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The Car Safety Patents That Saved Millions Of Lives (and those that didn’t)
Car manufacturers have been striving to improve safety features in vehicles since automotive production began. The original patents for some of the most essential features that we take for granted today make for fascinating reading…as do the dangerous patents we’re probably glad we don’t take for granted.
Classic Patents
Windscreen Wipers
Inventor: Mary Anderson
Filing Date: June 18th, 1903
Publication Date: November 10th, 1903
Patent Quote: “The window-cleaning devices are rendered easily removable when not required, thus leaving nothing to mar the usual appearance of the car during fair weather.”
Fact: Mary Anderson was inspired by riding a streetcar in New York while it was snowing – the driver kept having to stop and leave the vehicle to wipe the windshield.
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Car Headlights
Inventors: George H Emerson, Robert D Hawkins, Frederick T Kitchen
Filing Date: June 13th, 1904
Publication Date: October 24th, 1905
Patent Quote: “Our invention relates to improvements in headlights generally, and has special reference to locomotive headlights or lamps.”
Fact: Headlights existed before 1904, however acetylene headlights were the first to become commercially successful when they became commonplace 10 years after the patent was filed.
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Transparent Windscreen
Inventor: John Crewe Wood
Filing Date: March 12th, 1906
Publication Date: September 4th, 1906
Patent Quote: “My invention […] has for its object the prevention of injury to the occupants of […] cars and vehicles through pieces of glass striking them if in an accident such screens or windows should’ be broken.”
Fact: John Crew Wood was told by a doctor that his eyes were too weak to drive without a screen. He was also told about horrific injuries a fellow motorist had suffered when his windscreen shattered in a gale. This gave him the idea for a transparent windscreen.
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Steering-gear
Inventor: Minor Harvey
Filing Date: January 3rd, 1906
Publication Date: October 16th, 1906
Patent Quote: “The object of my invention is to provide a construction of steering or controlling gear suitable for automobiles and other appliances which shall be positive in action, durable in use, and eliminate objectionable lost motion and backlash.”
Fact: This patent was a predecessor to the steering wheel as we know it today and attempted to overcome the many limitations that made early 20th century cars so dangerous at high speeds – whiplash from sharp turns and delay in response time being the main culprits.
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Indicators
Inventor: Oscar J. Simler
Filing Date: April 3rd, 1926
Publication Date: December 3rd, 1929
Patent Quote: “This invention relates to signal means for motor vehicles and the like, the general object of the invention being to provide means, some of which are automatic, for indicating when the vehicle is to slow up or stop or is to be turned to the right or left.”
Fact: Florence Lawrence, often called ‘The First Movie Star’, spoke to a magazine in 1920 and said, “I have invented an ‘auto-signaling arm,’ which […] can be raised or lowered by electrical push buttons.” However, she failed to patent the idea.
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Airbags
Inventor: John W Hetrick
Filing Date: August 5th, 1952
Publication Date: August 18th, 1953
Patent Quote: “It is well appreciated that many persons suffer death or serious injury when hurled against an unyielding structural portion of an automotive vehicle, when the vehicle is involved in a collision or is braked suddenly and heavily to avoid a collision.”
Fact: The original airbag patent, filed in 1952, has subsequently been referenced by 42 other patents, showing just how impactful it has been on automotive safety.
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Seatbelts
Inventor: Nils Ivar Bohlin
Filing Date: August 17th, 1959
Publication Date: July 10th, 1962
Patent Quote: “Conventional safety belts comprising a chest strap and a hip strap are devised in such a manner that when stressed they transmit a substantial part of the load on the chest strap to the backrest of the seat and at the same time result in a substantially downwardly directed compressive force acting adversely on the spine.”
Fact: In the United States alone it was estimated that seatbelts saved an estimated 255,000 lives between 1975 and 2008 and in the UK it is estimated that they save 2,000 lives a year. Thank you, Nils Bohlin.
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Dummy For Car Crash Testing
Inventors: Lothar Groesch, Gabriel Netzer, Lothar Kassing
Filing Date: February 3rd, 1986
Publication Date: October 20th, 1987
Patent Quote: “The model is provided with a skeleton. In the area of the thorax, the skeleton is formed by several pairs of rib-curvature-type leaf springs which, as curved ribs, connect a backbone with a chestplate. The model is equipped with a mechanical-electrical transducer for the measuring of a mechanical quantity.”
Fact: While this patent marked a great leap forward in making car crash test dummies anatomically correct, human cadavers are also regularly used to test car safety features. Since 1987, cadaver research has saved an estimated 8,500 lives annually in the US.
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Modern Patents
Automatic Braking Systems
Inventors: Tadayuki Niibe, Hiroki Uemura, Tohru Yoshioka
Filing Date: January 28th, 1993
Publication Date: July 26th, 1994
Patent Quote: “The automatic braking system continuously detects a distance and a relative speed between a vehicle and an obstacle in front of the vehicle by an optical device and/or an ultrasonic device, and judges, based on the detected distance and relative speed.”
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Human Flypaper
Inventors: Alex Khaykin, Daniel Lynn Larner (Google Inc.)
Filing Date: December 4th, 2013
Publication Date: May 17th, 2016
Patent Quote:
“The adhesive bonds the pedestrian to the vehicle so that the pedestrian remains with the vehicle until it stops, and is not thrown from the vehicle, thereby preventing a secondary impact between the pedestrian and the road surface or other object.”
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Pre-crumpling Car
Inventors: Daniel Lynn Larner, Felix Jose Alvarez Rivera, Atul Gupta (Waymo LLC)
Filing Date: September 3rd, 2015
Publication Date: August 8th, 2017
Patent Quote: “One aspect of the disclosure provides a system and method for altering a vehicle’s rigidity. The system and method may include detecting, by one or more sensors, an object in a vehicle’s surroundings; determining, by one or more processors, that the object and the vehicle will collide.”
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Dangerous Patents
In-car Coffee Maker
Inventors: Phillip H. English
Filing Date: August 1st, 1991
Publication Date: August 10th, 1993
Patent Quote: “The In-Car Coffee Maker allows the driver of a motor vehicle to brew a cup or other single portion of brewed beverage without taking attention from the road.”
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Flying Car
Inventors: Einar Einarsson
Filing Date: August 12th, 1959
Publication Date: May 21st, 1963
Patent Quote: “It is an object of this invention to provide a ground vehicle with propellers and wings as well as wing flaps so that the vehicle may take off and fly in the air.”
Where do you think the future of car safety is heading?
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