Seat 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...<p>BTW: You are almost certainly not strong enough to support yourself by one hand while you unbuckle. But falling down to the roof <i>after</i> the wreck is far better than being thrown from the car <i>during</i> the wreck.
The article is a little disingenuous.<p>There aren't two options for a patent like this (horde it or give it away freely).<p>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).<p>Volvo makes money on their invention and customers get the safety they desire.<p>Everybody wins.
In 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.<p>Well done.
Volvo 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.
Does 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.
1959?? In Brazil there were no three-point seatbelt on any car until the 90's!<p>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.
"... a three point seat belt that can be seen in the above image and every car sold today"<p>I'm confused, the above image is a meme -- was this copied from some other source?
"German patent registrars named it one of the 8 most significant patents of the century - an honor shared with inventors like Thomas Edison."<p>They shared it rather then stole it from someone else. So sharing the list with Edison is a doubtable honour.