The Development Of Cars Safety

Cars

Cars are automobiles. Cars have become much safer since the first car to now as technology has advanced even the smallest safety features to make them better. The materials cars are made of are also advancing and becoming safer and easier to manufacture.

Before the change

The first car was manufactured by Carl Benz a German Engineer. It had a copper engine and a varnished wooden frame its three wheels were all steel with thin rubber tires. The engine was a 0.

75HP engine with a top speed of 16MPH it did not have seat belts or any safety features at all. The main material for cars like the ford model t and the older model were all primarily made from wood steel and copper because these materials were easiest to use, and they were the most reliable at the time as now cars are getting bits of carbon fibre because that is the best material.

What caused the change

Seat belts

Seat belts were first introduced into cars in 1946.

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An American inventor called Nash had the idea and it was a success in 1958 it became a compliancy to have seat belts for every seat in a car. The first seat belt created by Nash crossed over the person sitting in the cars hips this held them in their seats and stopped them from hitting the windshield or dashboard. In 1959 just after seatbelts became compulsory an engineer from Volvo called Nihls Bolin came up with the idea for a three-point seat belt a three-point seatbelt has one strap diagonal across the chest and another strap across the lap this held the passenger even better in place.

Air bags

In 1952 John Hertick created the bag of life (the air bag) which are safety cushions built into steering wheels and dash boards doors and seats. The idea was when a car hits head on or on the side the airbag inflates and reduces the impact of the crash on the occupants of the vehicle. Air bags have now become much safer because they can monitor the speed and size they need to inflate to suit the passenger, but early air bags used to harm people sometimes because they inflated with such velocity to such a large size.

Child car seats

Child car seats were first invented in the 1930s it held children in their seats while the car was being driven but it did not protect them during a collision. Later in the 1960s a designer at Volvo improved the car seat by adding two diagonal belts that also kept the child from being thrown forwards during a crash. Volvo later designed a seat for infants that faced backwards s it protected them during a head on collision.

Crumple zones

In 1995 Bela Berenyi a Mercedes Benz engineer introduced the crumple zone in the front and rear of most or the Mercedes cars these crumple zones absorb the shock or a crash and crumple so that the passengers are not injured.

Crash Statistics

Nearly 1.3 million people die in road crashes every year, on average 3,287 deaths a day. And an 20-50 million people are disabled or injured each year, and more than half or road traffic deaths occur from people ages 15-44. There have been 297 fatalities this year in New Zealand. In the US 2010 there was an estimated 4419000 crashes killing 33000 people and injuring 2m people.

Early crashes In the earlier days of driving people were much less aware because there were much fewer cars. In 1906 a drawing of a rich young man is being driven by his chuffer they are both carless about what is happening around them and the chuffer nearly misses hitting a pedestrian in front of the car.

What are cars made of

There is about a ton of steel in every car averagely. The most recent car the tesla model S is made of lots of materials but the main material its main materials are titanium, aluminium, copper, steel and a lithium battery because it is made of such expensive and rare materials but if you look at the average car the- Toyota Carola its main materials are a lot cheaper and easier to make like Steel, aluminium, rubber and copper.

But it also has things like what Toyota called special fibres they use things like these to fill up space and cushion things out.

Cars safety today

Today cars are getting even safer because or crash test. To test how safe cars are some cars are manufactured to preform crash tests. Early rash tests were done in the 1930s to see how much damage was done to car when they crash at different speeds. In the 1950s dummies were added to crash tests to see what impact they would have on humans. Today there are rash test dummies being made to the height and weight or the average man woman child and even dog. They use these tests for much more than just seeing what effect crashes have on humans as well they want to see how their safety equipment is working and to see if there is anything else that thy could add in for extra safety.

Summary

Early cars did not have as many safety features as cars today have they also had much more limited materials. Cars have evolved hugely since the first little three-wheeler to the latest four wheel drive the materials are becoming easier to manufacture and mass production is getting quicker and smarter. Seat belts can now adjust themselves and air bags can self-inflate. 3d printing is now a way to manufacture a car and it is becoming quicker and more reliable.