Brilliant but Forgotten Car Safety Innovations

Discover overlooked car safety innovations like Volvo’s VESC, swivel seats, and Goodyear’s glowing tires that never reached widespread use.

Automotive safety has come a long way from its rudimentary beginnings. While modern vehicles brim with advanced driver-assist systems and AI-enhanced protection, the roots of many of these ideas go back decades — and some of them have been surprisingly forgotten, despite their brilliance.

One such visionary was Béla Barényi, a Hungarian-Austrian engineer often credited with laying the groundwork for the crumple zone concept as early as 1937. By the 1950s, Mercedes-Benz began implementing his ideas, and the 1953 W120 "Ponton" model used a structure built on Barényi’s principles. But it was the 1959 W111 that showcased the full realization of the crumple zone — deformable front and rear sections that absorbed energy, protecting the passenger cell.

Meanwhile, Chrysler was exploring user-friendly interiors. In the late 1950s, it introduced swivel seats, which rotated outward to ease ingress and egress. For a brief moment, these rotating front seats appeared to be the future of comfort and ergonomics. However, shifting design trends and mounting safety concerns gradually pushed them into obscurity.

Not every bright idea stood the test of mass adoption. Take automatic seat belts, for instance. Enforced in the U.S. during the 1980s as a response to seat belt law resistance, these systems automatically slid into place when doors closed. While innovative in theory, they often left the lap unprotected — a major flaw in crash scenarios — and were eventually replaced by more effective three-point belts and airbags.

And then there were Goodyear’s illuminated tires. Unveiled in 1961, these Neothane-based tires glowed thanks to internal lighting, offering stunning nighttime visibility. Despite their aesthetic appeal, they were deemed impractical due to poor durability, cost, and distraction risks — a concept ahead of its time that never made it past the demo stage.

Some ideas, like external dog carriers from the 1930s, now seem baffling. These metal crates, mounted to running boards, freed up cabin space but exposed animals to harsh elements, road debris, and exhaust fumes. Though arguably practical in a utilitarian era, the concept faded for obvious welfare reasons.

Concept cars have long served as incubators for breakthrough ideas. In 1972, Volvo introduced the VESC — Volvo Experimental Safety Car — at the Geneva Motor Show. It packed features like crumple zones, anti-lock brakes, rearview cameras, and retracting steering wheels. Many of these were decades ahead of their commercial introduction, and several made their way into the Volvo 240 series.

Some forgotten ideas are now being reborn with modern technology. Volvo is currently developing AI-adaptive seat belts for its 2026 EX60 model. These belts read the passenger’s body type, position, and crash dynamics to adjust tension in real time. It’s a nod to earlier restraint innovations, refined with today’s sensor and AI capabilities.

Another example is the Babyark car seat, an ultra-premium safety seat equipped with 14 sensors and a military-grade carbon fiber shell. It uses real-time monitoring, mobile alerts, and a shape inspired by nature’s most protective form — the egg — to ensure a child’s safety in extreme scenarios. It's a modern echo of past overengineering, executed with today's tech maturity.

These ideas — some eccentric, some visionary — remind us that automotive safety is a story of evolution, not revolution. Many forgotten innovations weren’t flawed, just early. With renewed interest and advanced materials, some of them might yet return, reimagined for tomorrow’s roads.