If the recent news that's been inundating our blog as of late is any indication, our favorite automaker has been moving mountains to usher in a brave new future of safety behind the wheel. Then again, updates like these have always come with the territory for us here at Volvo of Burlingame. After all, if it weren't for Volvo, safety in the auto industry would have stayed a mere afterthought.
Now, up until 1959, there was no such thing as seat belts in anyone's new and used cars. In fact, the ones that did exist were two-point waist restraints that actually put passengers in more danger than if they hadn't been wearing them. Hard to imagine in this day and age, but it wasn't until Nils Bohlin came along that the wheel was reinvented.
If the name isn't ringing any bells, Bohlin was a forward-thinking engineer at Volvo who came up with the three-point safety belt that we still use today. Rather than privately patent the invention and use it to earn profits, Volvo did something that's typically unheard of: they gave it away. Realizing that their invention was too important to use for their own gain, they opened up the patent and allowed other automakers to benefit from it in turn.
It wasn't until 1963 that the invention made its way to the US, and since that time, Volvo estimates that more than a million lives have been saved worldwide since Bohlin's invention was introduced.
So if you'd like to learn more about the industry-leading safety features you can find in our lineup, the experts in our car parts department would be happy to fill you in at our dealership here in Burlingame, CA. Because if we know Volvo, the future of this industry will never be the same.