2 ms·
This. The safety improvement from successive features is logarithmic or close to it. Seatbelts win you the overwhelming majority of the safety. Bucket seats
by throwaway0a5e 6y ago
This. The safety improvement from successive features is logarithmic or close to it. Seatbelts win you the overwhelming majority of the safety. Bucket seats with headrests get you most of what's left. Stiff passenger cabin (i.e. the difference between a car from 1981 and 2001) gets you most of the remainder.
Airbags, crumple zones, belt pre-tensioners and all the other high tech stuff that the internet worships are basically a rounding error compared to "a strong cabin and some basic stuff to keep the occupants in the right place inside it".
- judge2020 6y agoI don't know, small overlap crashes (which include impact on only about one fifth of the bumper on the driver-side) have only recently been prioritized (circa 2014) and that's when all of the technology seeped into every car model, even on the low end of the new car market. https://youtu.be/TZC8Ykl1esE https://youtu.be/TZC8Ykl1esE https://www.iihs.org/api/datastoredocument/status-report/pdf/49/11 https://www.iihs.org/api/datastoredocument/status-report/pdf... (starting page 4)