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Volvo Gave Away the Most Important Design They Ever Patented
- codezero 13y ago"... a three point seat belt that can be seen in the above image and every car sold today" I'm confused, the above image is a meme -- was this copied from some other source?
- rocky1138 13y agoI was wondering the same. Or I guess they could be talking about the grill of the car containing a seat-belt-like design?
- mzs 13y agoThe Volvos back then did not have that, it was reintroduced later and it reflects on the leather straps and buckles the much older ones had, which originated as a means to hold the engine cover down.
- scott_karana 13y agoI refreshed the page, and now there's a shot of a man (presumably Bohlin) wearing a seatbelt above the phrase in question.
- alexmayyasi 13y agoAuthor here. I originally had a pic of a regular old seat belt, but when I saw the Volvo meme I had to use it. Just fixed that. Sorry for the confusion!
- fjcaetano 13y agoIn my opinion, this is the best example of a selfless action that turns itself into positive a valuable marketing. Volvo gave up profiting millions (billions?) for "the sake of mankind" which gave them an image of a company that cares, not only for their customers, but one that cares for everyone. Well done.
- deletes 13y agoI'm afraid the decision was made because the CEO had a bad car crash experience.
- skrebbel 13y agoSo selfless actions done by people with related bad experiences don't count?
- deletes 13y agoEvery such move counts as good. I was pointing out that the action was not truly selfless, since the circumstances were such that he started developing towards safety. He might as well be directed towards something bad if the specific situation was different. The move was correct, but for the wrong reasons.
- Jtsummers 13y agoBy your interpretation there are almost certainly no true selfless acts. They're all done for the wrong reason. At this point, we can't know that the release of the patent wouldn't have happened regardless of the personal tragedy so stating that it was for the wrong reason is absurd. It's not like they sat on it for 15 years, then suffered the tragedy, then released the patent.
- mikeash 13y agoUnless they also invented time travel, the CEO's actions didn't help with the accident in question, and so don't disqualify it from being "selfless".
- deletes 13y agoWhat are you talking about? Here is the quote from the article: >>At the time, Volvo was already pushing its brand as a safety conscious automaker. Its CEO, whose relative had recently died in a car crash, decided to hire Nils Bohlin, a man who had previously designed ejector seats for fighter jets, as chief safety engineer (a new position).<<
- chiph 13y agoSeat belts work. I once spent several minutes held upside down by one, after the car I was riding in rolled onto it's roof. Everything loose in the car ended up on the headliner -- change, jackets, crusty old french fry bits... BTW: You are almost certainly not strong enough to support yourself by one hand while you unbuckle. But falling down to the roof after the wreck is far better than being thrown from the car during the wreck.
- bobf 13y agoThe safety of modern cars is amazing. I was also in a rollover accident, and only had two main complaints immediately following it: my head hurt slightly from falling on it when I unbuckled my seat belt while hanging upside down, and my knee was sore from banging against the dash when the car rolled. This was in a "cheap", "plastic" 2006 Hyundai Accent. However, I don't recommend trying this to find out -- although the driver and I crawled out of the car and were standing there when the police and ambulance arrived, they were shocked that we were basically unharmed (as were the nurses and doctors at the hospital we were taken to for examination).
- deveac 13y ago>This was in a "cheap", "plastic" 2006 Hyundai Accent. This brings back memories of high school. I was driving a massive boat...a Pontiac Parisian station wagon (thank you grandpa). I was stopped at a light with a car in front of me and a car in back. I saw a truck barreling down in my rearview and knew he wasn't paying attention. I heard the screech of brakes as he slammed the car behind me with enough force to hit me and launch my wagon into the car in front of me...a cheap plastic Hyundai as I recall. Anyway, the hood of the car behind me was totaled, and the rear of the Hyundai in front of me was demolished. My slab of Detroit steel was untouched. Even the steel bumper was perfect, -both the front and rear had a thin band of rubber running horizontally across. The rear rubber band was slightly deformed for a couple of square inches. That was it. I remember the cop just looking at it shaking his head :) I still think back to that transfer of force and almost can't believe it.
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- cgag 13y agoDoes a strap across the shoulder really warrant a patent? Am I just having good hindsight? I guess I need to think about this more, but the more I read about things that are patentable the less I think I believe patents should exist at all.
- aleyan 13y agoI am rather certain if I was designing an across the shoulder seatbelt without having seen a modern 3-point seat-belt, it would end with the seat belt strangling or decapitating people.
- GravityWell 13y agoApple has patented virtual page turning, rubber banding, pinch to zoom, and probably other more frivolous things that I'm not aware of. I think Apple would quickly patent the 3 point seatbelt if they could.
- markshepard 13y agoOnly Apple? When I worked at IBM, we were encouraged to patent every little thing possible (You get 750$/patent). I dont believe this is an apple problem but more of tech industry problem.. Didn't Google just buy massive amount of Lucent network patents?
- lostlogin 13y agoThere were a lot of clever people working on smart phones and tablets prior to Apple products appearing on the market. How did they all miss these obvious seeming options? Apple do seem to have screamed BAGSY on a few key things, which ones that matter did they not grab and now pay to license?
- frost_knight 13y agohttp://www.theonion.com/articles/chrysler-halts-production-of-neckbelts,810/ http://www.theonion.com/articles/chrysler-halts-production-o...
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- beloch 13y agoAn interesting question would be whether or not Volvo would do the same thing today if they made another such invention.
- gcb0 13y agoYou don't have to go far or wonder up scenarios. Just look at what happens to ANY safety patent, save from this one. none of them are free. they all carry royalties. Better yet, get away from automobiles and look at medical patents. The most lucrative ones are for disposable cathereres(not sure the word in english). they are sometimes nothing more than a straw and a needle. yet patents abound. How many lives could them save with each safety or health patent? Should we draw a line that if a patent is useful it should be free? ...that goes directly opposite to the justification of a patent to begin with.
- derleth 13y ago> cathereres(not sure the word in english) 'Catheters' is the word in English.
- zanny 13y agoPatents are meant to prevent small independent inventors from being crushed by big group to-market strategy taking their invention and out-competing them because they didn't have to invest the R&D. Today, there is no R&D on a lot of this crap, the big guys just patent it to crush the smaller guys with the patents instead of taking their ideas. At least in the former, the information is out there.
- latj 13y agoYou cant compare Volvo then and Volvo now. But if the question is- would a young Swedish researcher today consider giving away an important invention that would help the world...I think it could still happen.
- umsm 13y agoThe problem is that most researchers are employed. The inventions are thus property of their employer.
- umsm 13y agoVolvo is not the only auto manufacturer to do this. I believe that Mercedes and Bosch do this too when their technology can considerably help the safety of the cars on the road.
- soneca 13y ago1959?? In Brazil there were no three-point seatbelt on any car until the 90's! I wonder why, since all our cars were from international big companies (Ford, Volks, Chevrolet...). They were locally produced, as we had a very closed market, but the technology was available for the big companies to introduce them here. Maybe it was cheaper to built the two-point one and as the brazilian customers didn't have to know that a three-point version was even available, no one complained.
- kmfrk 13y agoA lot of car manufacturers in the U.S. fought safety regulation, when Ralph Nader championed it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_nader#Automobile_safety_activism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_nader#Automobile_safety_.... Many didn't introduce the measures out of the kindness of their hearts, sadly.
- lostlogin 13y agoSo this is another case of regulation holding back the free market?
- refurb 13y agoThe article is a little disingenuous. There aren't two options for a patent like this (horde it or give it away freely). The other option is to out-license the patent to your competitors for a fee, say $5. The other car manufacturers can speak to the additional safety offered, customers can seek those types of cars out (and are likely to pay for the privilege). Volvo makes money on their invention and customers get the safety they desire. Everybody wins.
- grimtrigger 13y agoIn some industries this is unfeasable, the cost of signing the contracts with a million little players would be too dificult. However, the auto industry is not one of those industries and Volvo definitely could of gone this way. But how many years would it be until someone decided they should squeeze a couple extra hundred million out of their seatbelt patent? I'm glad we'll never have to find out
- tnorthcutt 13y agodefinitely could of gone Pet peeve of mine; it's "could have gone".
- chrischen 13y agoMPEG LA does this. They make anyone trying to use their algorithms pay and sign a contract.
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- CaRDiaK 13y agoThank god Apple didn't do it!
- CmonDev 13y ago"German patent registrars named it one of the 8 most significant patents of the century - an honor shared with inventors like Thomas Edison." They shared it rather then stole it from someone else. So sharing the list with Edison is a doubtable honour.