It’s no accident: These automotive safety features flopped

Over the years, inventors have had some weird ideas about how to make cars safer.

By Larry Printz | ARS TECHNICA

Turn signals have been a vehicle safety staple since they first appeared on Buicks in 1939. Of course, many drivers don't use them, perhaps believing that other motorists can telepathically divine others' intentions.

More people might use turn signals if they knew that drivers' failure to do so leads to more than 2 million accidents annually, according to a study conducted by the Society of Automotive Engineers. That's 2 percent of all crashes, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. And not using turn signals increases the likelihood of an accident by 40 percent, according to the University of Michigan Research Institute.

*Drivers' failure to do so leads to more than 2 million accidents annually, according to a study conducted by the Society of Automotive Engineers.*

Human nature could be to blame—death and injury will never happen to us, only others.

You wish.

So, is it any wonder that during the first six decades of automobile production, there were few safety features? The world into which the automobile was born was one in which horses powered most transportation, but that didn't mean getting around was safe. Say a horse got spooked. If the animal was pulling a carriage, its actions could cause the carriage to barrel away or even overturn, injuring or killing its occupants. Or the horse could cause death directly. In fact, a surprising number of kings met their end over the centuries by a horse's swift kick. And rail travel proved even deadlier. Studies comparing modern traffic accidents with those of the early 20th century reveal that death from travel is 90 percent less likely today than it was in 1925.

Yet America's passive acceptance of death from vehicle travel in the late 19th and early 20th century explains why auto safety was sporadically addressed, if at all. Sure, there were attempts at offering basic safety in early automobiles, like windshield wipers and improved lighting. And some safety features endured, such as Ford's introduction of safety glass as standard equipment in 1927 or GM's turn signals. But while other car safety features appeared from time to time, many of them just didn't pan out.

Dead ends on the road to safer cars

Among the earliest attempts at providing safety was the O'Leary Fender, invented by John O'Leary of Cohoes, New York, in 1906. "It is made of bands of iron of such shape and design that falling into it is declared to be like the embrace of a summer girl on a moonlit night on the shore," wrote The Buffalo News in 1919, with more than a little poetic license.

According to the account, O'Leary was so confident of the fender's ability to save lives that he used his own child to prove its safety. "The babe was gathered up on the folds of the fender as tenderly as it had ever been in the arms of its mother," the newspaper reported, "and was not only uninjured but seemed to enjoy the experience."

There's no word on what Mrs. O'Leary thought of using the couple's child as a crash test dummy. But the invention seemed worthy enough that an unnamed car manufacturer battled O'Leary in court over it and lost. Ultimately, his victory proved futile, as the feature was not adopted.

Others also tried to bring some measure of safety to automobiles, chief among them the Pennsylvania Rubber Company of Jeanette, Pennsylvania. The company's idea: make a tire tread of small suction cups to improve traction. Called the Pennsylvania Vacuum Cup tire, the product proved to be popular for a while, with reports of sales outnumbering conventional tires 10 to 1, according to the Salt Lake Tribune in 1919. While Pennsylvania wasn't the only rubber company to offer vacuum cup tires, the concept had its day before fading, although the idea does resurface from time to time.

*Pennsylvania Vacuum Cup tire advertisement*

Nevertheless, safety remained unaddressed, even as the number of deaths was rising substantially.

"Last year more than 22,000 persons were killed in or by automobiles, and something like three quarters of a million injured," wrote The New Republic in 1926. "The number of dead is almost half as large as the list of fatalities during the nineteen months of America's participation in the Great War."

"The 1925 total is 10 percent larger than that for 1924," the publication added.

The chief causes cited were the same as they are today—namely, speeding, violating the rules of the road, inattention, inexperience, and confusion. But at least one automaker—Stutz—was trying to put safety first.

First car designed for safety

Bethlehem Steel magnate Charles M. Schwab had assumed control of Stutz in 1922 after its founder had left. Schwab refocused the company on building luxury cars rather than the sports cars that made the company famous, bringing in Frederick Moskovics, an engineer who had served at Daimler, Marmon, Franklin, and Remy Electric. Moskovics guided the engineering of the Safety Stutz, which debuted at the 1926 New York Auto Show.

The car rode as much as eight inches lower than its competitors thanks to a worm-gear differential that allowed the drive shaft to sit below the rear axle. This lowered the center of gravity, making the car more stable. It also had wire-reinforced shatterproof glass and four-wheel hydraulic drum brakes, which proved far better at stopping yet were only used for one year. And in another industry first, heavy steel running boards were designed to provide side-impact protection.

A great car? Perhaps. But the Safety Stutz's $2,995 price—the equivalent of $51,558.33 in 2023—proved too expensive for most Americans.

Slow sales killed this car and its safety innovations. Other safety ideas vanished simply because they weren't good.

Safety ideas that just couldn’t work

Imagine being hit by a car while walking along a sidewalk. If that car was equipped with the Hit and Run Disc, you would at least get the driver's information, or so the theory went. The bumper would mechanically activate discs inscribed with the name of the owner and the license plate number of the car. The discs would stamp the information on you, alongside your bruises and broken bones. This idea, born in the 1930s, never got past the theoretical stage.

An easier way to make driving safer for inattentive drivers is to give them direct reminders to be safe. That's why automakers install technology in new cars to admonish you to pull over and take a rest. But such ideas aren't new. Buick printed the slogan "Safety First" on all of its 1938 speedometers. Such admonitions didn't make cars safer, though Buick's introduction of turn signals a year later did.

*A 1938 Buick speedometer (ClassicCars.com photo)*

In 1948, a former race car builder and defense manufacturer named Preston Tucker unveiled the Tucker Torpedo, a car designed to enhance driver safety. Its cabin featured a padded cubby under the dashboard into which drivers could crawl before a crash. Because crashes happen suddenly and quickly, such a maneuver was nearly impossible. Also, the car's windshield popped out upon impact so that the driver wouldn't go through it. No word on whether the windshield would shatter elsewhere or whom the flying glass might hit. Tucker is also credited with creating the first car with headlights that turn with the steering wheel, although that idea was cribbed from Pilot Ray lights, an aftermarket accessory available for at least two decades prior.

The Tucker Torpedo stalled after 51 units were built; the Securities and Exchange Commission ordered production to stop after Tucker was charged with committing fraud.

A rising tide

In 1956, Ford attempted to sell what it called its Lifeguard Design. All 1956 Fords came with energy-absorbing steering wheels and safety door latches. Seat belts, a padded instrument panel, and a safety rearview mirror were optional. However, the new initiative failed because Ford sold "safety" and Chevrolet sold cars.

Still, the impulse to improve car safety continued to spawn new ideas.

One was the Spaceometer, a patented gauge that showed how many car lengths should be maintained behind a car at various speeds. The device was even considered a safety device for motorists in a 1963 House of Representatives meeting, but it was never actually adopted. Today, cars commonly use sensors and a dashboard light to warn drivers if they're following a car too closely.

Other ideas were more outlandish—like a water-filled bumper system from 1970. The water-filled parts were named "hydraulic bumpers" and were made of quarter-inch-thick vinyl chloride. Upon impact, water chambers in the bumpers would release water to soften the blow. After the collision, the driver would refill the bumper using tap water, as the bumper material typically wouldn't have any ruptures.

*Water-filled bumper collides at 20 mph. (Los Angeles Times photo)*

"Manufacturer Rich's Soft Cushion Bumper Co. from Sacramento says the devices are being used by several police departments, the Valley Cab Co.'s fleet of 50 cars and many individuals," the Los Angeles Times reported at the time. Unsurprisingly, this is one safety innovation whose demand quickly dried up.

The best of intentions, the worst results

With the passage of the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act in 1966, Congress authorized a new agency to establish and oversee automotive safety standards for the first time, with the first laws going into effect in 1968. This led automakers to seek out new ways to meet the new requirements, not always successfully.

At the time, automotive research found that drivers instinctively tighten their grip on the steering wheel in stressful driving situations. This led to the creation of Rim Blow steering wheels, which were optional on 1969–1971 Cadillacs, Oldsmobiles, and Buicks; 1969–1974 Ford, Mercury, and Lincolns; 1970–1973 Chryslers, Dodges, and Plymouths; and 1970–1971 AMCs. To make the horn blow, you would squeeze the rim, which was lined with rubber. Below the rubber was a conductive ring that, upon compression, would come into touch with another conductive ring, completing the circuit and sounding the horn.

But as the vehicle aged, sunlight would shrink the rubber, causing the horn to sound constantly. Or the rubber would harden, making it impossible to sound the horn. Worse, few drivers sprung for the option, so companies dropped it.

In 1973, the newly created National Highway Traffic Safety Administration required all new 1973 cars to have a seat belt interlock to prevent a car from starting until the driver's seat belt was buckled. While the rule was well-intentioned, drivers considered it government overreach. Automakers weren't happy, either, as it cost them money to implement the system. Congress stepped in, eliminating the mandate the following year. But forcing everyone to buckle up became a government imperative.

In 1977, NHTSA issued a regulation that all new cars must be equipped with some sort of passive restraint starting in 1981. The law was meant to spur the installment of airbags so that those who didn't wear a seatbelt would still be protected during a collision. Yet as the Democratic Carter administration gave way to the Republican Reagan administration, the regulation was revoked. Insurance firms sued the government, as they had a stake in passenger safety. The Supreme Court ruled unanimously in favor of the insurers, directing the Department of Transportation to reinstate the mandate. Automakers had until 1989 to fit their 1990 models with some sort of passive restraint system.

To meet this new regulation, Audi unveiled Procon-ten in 1986. Short for Programmed Contraction and Tension, the system pulled back the steering wheel and steering column during collisions as the front seatbelts tensioned. Procon-ten was found in Audi models until Audi began installing airbags in 1994, which did less damage to the car during deployment.

The passive restraint laws thankfully ignited an automotive safety system arms race, one that has made the automobile safer than it has ever been, as engineers work hard to mitigate its most unsafe, unpredictable factor: the squishy organism behind the wheel.