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I was told this story by a car nerd friend, and I won't guarantee its accuracy (feel free to confirm or deny if you have more information.) When Volvo began ma

by Kluny 11y ago

I was told this story by a car nerd friend, and I won't guarantee its accuracy (feel free to confirm or deny if you have more information.) When Volvo began making cars, they were very beautiful, artistically designed instant classics, like this one: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/99/b5/39/99b539384b296fa63a99d0f7c010ab03.jpg https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/99/b5/39/99b539384... The founder of the company was passionate about making and driving beautiful cars, and he succeeded and built a pretty impressive company on that. However, he didn't pay much attention to safety, and died in a car wreck. His wife inherited the company, and instead of selling off the assets and retiring, decided to take the helm and begin producing the safest cars possible. Ever since, they've been on the leading edge of safety development. The cars weren't quite as pretty, but they didn't kill as many people. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/df/1988-1991_Volvo_240_GL_station_wagon_%282011-06-15%29_01.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/df/1988-199...

onre 11y ago
Not true, neither of the founders died in a car accident. Volvo had a very strong safety emphasis already in the '50s, introducing many firsts in the automotive safety field. In that decade they introduced shoulder belts as a world first and padded dashboard as an European first (Tucker had this already in '40s but only 51 cars were ever made).
- masklinn 11y ago
  > In that decade they introduced shoulder belts as a world first And ultimately decided to make the patent (US 3043625) license-free and open (essentially copyleft)
masklinn 11y ago
If onre's comment doesn't suffice, your picture is the backside of a P1800ES. It was released in the early 70s. Before it, during the 60s, Volvo had started using 3-point seatbelts (front and back), padded dashboards, rear-facing child seats, crumple zones and head restraints.
- mturmon 11y ago
  The three-point seat belt that Volvo introduced (first to the market) looked like this: http://web.origin.volvocars.com/SiteCollectionImages/TopNavigation/News-Events/seatbelt_woman.bmp http://web.origin.volvocars.com/SiteCollectionImages/TopNavi... A friend had a sporty two-seater Volvo P1800, and it had this exact seat belt clasp. It felt like something out of an airplane - solid, metal, no-nonsense - and it basically was, because the designer used to do ejection seats at Saab.
- Kluny 11y ago
  Ha, I'll tell my friend to go climb a tree then. Still, it would have been a nice story if it was true.

by Kluny 11y ago

onre 11y ago

Not true, neither of the founders died in a car accident. Volvo had a very strong safety emphasis already in the '50s, introducing many firsts in the automotive safety field. In that decade they introduced shoulder belts as a world first and padded dashboard as an European first (Tucker had this already in '40s but only 51 cars were ever made).

masklinn 11y ago
> In that decade they introduced shoulder belts as a world first And ultimately decided to make the patent (US 3043625) license-free and open (essentially copyleft)

masklinn 11y ago

If onre's comment doesn't suffice, your picture is the backside of a P1800ES. It was released in the early 70s. Before it, during the 60s, Volvo had started using 3-point seatbelts (front and back), padded dashboards, rear-facing child seats, crumple zones and head restraints.

mturmon 11y ago
The three-point seat belt that Volvo introduced (first to the market) looked like this: http://web.origin.volvocars.com/SiteCollectionImages/TopNavigation/News-Events/seatbelt_woman.bmp http://web.origin.volvocars.com/SiteCollectionImages/TopNavi... A friend had a sporty two-seater Volvo P1800, and it had this exact seat belt clasp. It felt like something out of an airplane - solid, metal, no-nonsense - and it basically was, because the designer used to do ejection seats at Saab.
Kluny 11y ago
Ha, I'll tell my friend to go climb a tree then. Still, it would have been a nice story if it was true.