(upbeat music)
- Most new cars are already really safe from the factory.
Things like modern computers, combined with decades
of car design experience have made modern cars
safer than ever before.
But experience doesn't come without making mistakes.
And computers haven't always existed.
Were cars death boxes of metal in the early years?
Well...
(car screeching)
Yeah.
So how'd we go from unsurvivable death traps
to the cars we know today?
When the first automobiles arrived in the 1880s,
inventors like Karl Benz weren't concerned
about the safety of their creations.
Instead, these early vehicles focused on more
important things, like running around without falling apart.
And getting out of the poop stream of a horse.
(retching)
Just take a look at the Benz Patent-Motorwagen,
a very early motorized vehicle.
This thing is basically a bench on wheels,
with an engine strapped on for kicks.
By the early 1900s, more and more of the well-to-do
were purchasing cars to replace their horse and carriage.
Out of self-preservation, these early cars
had some concessions to safety, like brakes and lights.
But the brakes was just a stick with some wood
that pushed against your wheel and the lights
were less powerful than the one on your phone.
For the most part though, safety was left
in the hands of the automakers alone.
Some speed limits were imposed, but those were more or less
to look out for the people not in cars.
With few developed roads and rudimentary technology,
these early cars didn't often travel at high speeds anyway.
As the technology matured and companies like Ford
started to introduce more efficient construction methods,
more people could actually afford to buy cars.
This increase in drivers forced governments
to start building infrastructure, such as paved roads,
which did improve safety for drivers,
but automakers and safety equipment
were completely unregulated.
(musical horns blaring)
- [Announcer] May of 1945 saw the lights go on again.
- The second World War proved to be a reset button
for the car industry.
With no cars produced for almost five years,
automakers had to fill empty dealer lots
for the returning G.I.'s, anxious to spend their pay.
In designing these new models, developments from the war,
such as improved manufacturing and materials,
could be applied to the cars being built.
These improved materials made the car stronger and safer.
But for the most part, automakers returned to building
along the same formula as before,
with safety as an afterthought.
It wasn't long ago until the returning G.I.'s
began having families and wanted to protect those families.
This led many automakers to begin offering
optional safety equipment on their models.
Ford introduced optional lap belts, and Volvo introduced
the first three-point seat belt in 1959.
After seat belt legislation was introduced in the U.S.,
the ability to survive a crash uninjured increased by 40%,
and mild injuries decreased by 35%.
That's a big deal.
With seat belts, manufacturers figured they had done enough.
But a guy named Ralph Nader published a scathing report
in 1965 on the lack of safety, titled, Unsafe At Any Speed.
This was the book that killed the Corvair.
For a number of reasons, the Corvair had particularly
horrible safety statistics.
Some of this had to do with a unique design
that required underinflated tires for proper handling.
But the rest of the safety issues were just because
it was a car and cars weren't safe.
Nader's book took a deep dive into every aspect
of design that made the car unsafe.
What made the book revelatory, however,
(gentle music)
was the fact that Nader exposed the fact that
Chevy knew the car was unsafe and didn't make it safer
because making it safer would cost them money.
People didn't like the idea that companies
placed more value on profits than human life,
and soon, public demand forced government regulations,
regarding safety to be implemented in America.
Two short years after Unsafe At Any Speed,
the U.S. government formed
the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration,
and introduced the first
Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard.
These new requirements on automakers
selling cars in the U.S. coincided
with OPEC's 1973 oil embargo.
While it may seem that these two
would not influence one another,
the timing of these two events proved to have some
not great effects on the auto industry.
All that safety equipment, which weighed a ton,
combined with the miserly fuel-sipping engines
proved to create an entire decade of slow,
lethargic, 1970s American metal,
wearing terrible low-impact bumpers.
This period of malaise, which is what it's now called,
finally came to an end, thanks to the biggest thing
to happen to cars since cars.
(upbeat music)
By the 1980s, automakers had access to the levels
of computing power that would allow them
to digitally design a car and model its crash behavior
without having to actually build and crash an entire car.
Computer-aided design or CAD led to the development
of new ways to meet government regulations
on passenger vehicle safety.
The most impactful of these was the widespread adoption
of crumple zones.
Car companies build a super strong center cell
around the passenger compartment,
while designing the front and rear sections
to manage as much impact as possible.
This is still largely how we design
and build our cars today.
After a crash, cars can be absolutely mangled,
but the people who walk away
can survive relatively unharmed.
To prove that crumple zones worked, automakers started using
crash test dummies borrowed from the aerospace industry.
These dummies measured the force of impacts,
and while they showed that the center section
in the new construction method was sufficiently strong,
the restraints on the occupants were not.
This led to the introduction of passive restraints.
Or airbags.
Because a seat belt is always holding you,
and will be used no matter what in a crash,
it is considered active,
while the airbag is considered passive,
because it deploys only during a crash
and may not ever be used.
The design and testing methods pioneered in the 1980s
led to an exponential improvement in car safety,
that may not have been possible without computers.
In the 1990s and the early 21st century,
computers would continue to provide
the main increase in automotive safety.
But now, it's because the computers
are fitting inside the cars.
- [Narrator] A shadowy flight into the dangerous.
- In the beginning, computer-controlled driver aids
mainly consisted of anti-slip traction control systems.
They were primitive compared to modern technology.
But technology quickly increased
and cars today are safer than ever.
Systems like Tesla's Autopilot
and Cadillac's Super Cruise are hinting at the future.
Allowing the car to guide itself
using onboard sensors and computers
for short distances and times under certain conditions.
And the best part is that if your car kills you
in autopilot, you weren't paying attention,
so you died peacefully without any fear of imminent death
that wakes me every evening
in a cold sweat from my nightmares.
As these technologies increase, less and less
human intervention will be required.
This will not only make for a more relaxed
driving experience, but will also remove
the most unpredictable aspect of cars on the road,
humans.
- He ran me over, I jumped on the hood,
call the police for me!
- [Female] Okay!
- Thanks to Garage Amino for sponsoring
this episode of WheelHouse.
Garage Amino is an app that connects car enthusiasts
from all around the world.
Garage Amino lets you connect and share pictures,
get advice, and use public chatrooms to talk cars,
and find inspiration for your next dream build.
There's blog posts, historical analyses,
concept builds, new car reviews, even parts and accessories.
Garage Amino has it all.
The app is like a car form on a stage three tune.
It's got a featured feed of all the best new content
and the community is super active, friendly, and welcoming.
There's always new stuff to check out
and it's super easy to make posts of your own.
Check out Garage Amino.
Click this big ol' yellow subscribe button
so you never miss an episode of WheelHouse.
If you wanna know more about safety,
check out this episode of WheelHouse on speed limits,
and if you like safe cars,
check out this episode of Up to Speed on Saab.
Get a shirt at shop.donut.media,
seriously, wear your seat belt, I'll see you later.
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