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Somewhat related anecdote, related to me by an acquaintance who works at a major US crash testing facility: I don't know about now, but, once upon a time, not

Somewhat related anecdote, related to me by an acquaintance who works at a major US crash testing facility: I don't know about now, but, once upon a time, not too long ago, US safety standards included crash tests where the dummies were not wearing seat belts. This naturally leads to cars sold in the US having air bags that are tuned slightly differently, so that they are less likely to cause injuries to people not wearing seat belts. Unfortunately, doing this decreases their ability to protect the vast majority (nowadays) of people who do use their seat belts.

csours 6y ago
As far as I know, this is still the case. A significant minority of people in the US do not wear seat belts; thus the timing on airbags has to accommodate this, or the airbags themselves would cause injury.
- Sohcahtoa82 6y ago
  I feel naked without my seat belt. Occasionally, I'll get into my wife's car to simply move it into the street so I have room in my driveway to wash mine, and even though I'm driving less than 50 feet, I still feel awkward not putting on the seat belt.
Karstographer 6y ago
OEMs in the US market still absolutely have to meet unbelted crash performance requirements. Fortunately modern airbags can be a bit more advanced than just having one "tune" for all situations. Depending on whether an occupant is buckled or not, the airbag control unit can elect to provide different amounts of restraint by controlling the timing of dual-staged inflators, and also cushion vents can be opened or closed either passively or electronically based on what cushion stiffness characteristic is needed. I've heard that people buy seat-belt extenders or plug in a seat-belt behind their back in order to make the seat-belt reminder chime deactivate (and these chimes are only getting more aggressive) but it's worth noting that in any of the vehicles with this kind of conditional deployment logic they're exposing themselves to an even higher likelihood of being injured. Not to mention the people who straight just cut the wires to their seat-belt sensor. I'm sure many people would love if the unbelted requirements could just go away, but until unbelted occupants stop accounting for such a large share of injuries/fatalities I don't think they will.

csours 6y ago

As far as I know, this is still the case. A significant minority of people in the US do not wear seat belts; thus the timing on airbags has to accommodate this, or the airbags themselves would cause injury.

Sohcahtoa82 6y ago
I feel naked without my seat belt. Occasionally, I'll get into my wife's car to simply move it into the street so I have room in my driveway to wash mine, and even though I'm driving less than 50 feet, I still feel awkward not putting on the seat belt.

Karstographer 6y ago

OEMs in the US market still absolutely have to meet unbelted crash performance requirements. Fortunately modern airbags can be a bit more advanced than just having one "tune" for all situations. Depending on whether an occupant is buckled or not, the airbag control unit can elect to provide different amounts of restraint by controlling the timing of dual-staged inflators, and also cushion vents can be opened or closed either passively or electronically based on what cushion stiffness characteristic is needed. I've heard that people buy seat-belt extenders or plug in a seat-belt behind their back in order to make the seat-belt reminder chime deactivate (and these chimes are only getting more aggressive) but it's worth noting that in any of the vehicles with this kind of conditional deployment logic they're exposing themselves to an even higher likelihood of being injured. Not to mention the people who straight just cut the wires to their seat-belt sensor. I'm sure many people would love if the unbelted requirements could just go away, but until unbelted occupants stop accounting for such a large share of injuries/fatalities I don't think they will.