The Volvo seat belt commercial sounds very, very familiar

[jmowreader]

This is Volvo's commercial announcing their new safety features.

&t=10s

In it, they read off some of the complaints the public and the media had in the 1950s when Volvo introduced the now-standard three-point seat belt...and if you didn't know it was a commercial about seat belts, you'd swear the complaints were from antimaskers.

[msongs]

1. my dad was belted into many planes in ww2 - he was all for car belts. they were lap belts

in the early years, not across the shoulder

[Straw Man]

2. The first car we had with seat belts ...

... was the Dodge Dart my Dad bought in 1964. It was also the first new car he had ever owned.

I went to the dealership with him to pick it up. I was in awe of the seat belts, which were lap belts. They seemed so ... space-age.

[Phoenix61]

3. I remember my dad installing seat belts in

one of our cars. Always pushed wearing them and I always have.

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. Volvo allowed their competitors to use their patents for belts for free

Volvo patented the designs; standard industrial practice, to protect their investment from copy-cats. Good patents offer you a defensible advantage over rivals—twenty years of monopoly rights in the U.S., for example. Having claimed this prize, Volvo were in a position to charge significant license fees to rivals, or indeed, to promote their cars as the safest on the road, by retaining exclusivity.

Remarkably, however, Volvo did neither, but made Bohlin's patent immediately available to all. Having sponsored the R&D, they gifted their designs to competitors, to encourage mass adoption and to save lives.
...
Today, Volvo is recognised as the world leader in car safety. Our design hero Bohlin went on to lead new projects at Volvo until the mid-1980s, including the design of SIPS, the famous "Side Impact Protection System." The company has continued to push technical boundaries, developing airbags and road sensors more recently, which has undoubtedly pressured competitors to innovate in turn.

Through persistence, seatbelt wearing eventually became not just a legal requirement, but a cultural norm; an innovation success, that many owe their lives to. On this 60th anniversary it is worth remembering Bohlin, and Volvo's gesture of goodwill. It is a refreshing story of design ingenuity, corporate entrepreneurship, and capitalism with a conscience. This doesn’t happen very often. Perhaps most notable of all, is how much time and effort was required for this "no-brainer" innovation to succeed.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/douglasbell/2019/08/13/60-years-of-seatbelts-volvos-great-gift-to-the-world/?sh=e6e63a422bcc

[jmowreader]

6. I didn't know they patented the design

I knew they gave it away free, but I was under the impression they decided not to spend the money to file for a patent on an invention they made free to all.

[moonscape]

5. The arguments against mandatory seatbelts and

motorcycle helmets at least focused on my right to die if I want to, not accepting the cost to society for their own injuries. Anti-maskers are arguing they have the right to kill other people if they want to. It’s remarkable.