Recently Volvo unveiled an Autonomous electric concept car called the 360c, which included “a special security blanket” (similar to seat belts and airbags) for when you will sleep in a horizontal position in the car.
This blanket is an attempt to solve one of the vexing problems faced by engineers self-driving cars: how to ensure the safety of passengers on vehicles of the fifth level (full autonomy without control permissions on the driver side) sleeping. Currently, drivers are protected by three-point seatbelts and airbags. But in the supine position, these techniques will not work because the belts hold you in the shoulder and hip, where the human body can best absorb shock.
How to protect a lying driver?
If you go, explains Lotta Jakobsson, senior technical expert, Volvo will change the geometry. The blanket will include the constraints that will be tightened around your shoulders and the areas of the hips in the event of a collision or hard braking. At first glance, everything is simple.
The trouble starts when someone begins to sleep on your side. What happens if a blanket will get confused or will fall out of bed? What if it unintentionally clamp the other part of the body such as the neck? These questions Volvo engineers have yet to work out.
In the end, airbags and seat belts do not always work as expected.
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How will “special security blanket” from Volvo
Ilya Hel