A rear seat belt that inflates like an airbag upon impact. A radar-based technology that warns of an impending collision. A car that does the parallel parking for you.
All these cutting-edge safety-related technologies developed by Ford Motor Co. were on display Wednesday for high school students in a Johns Hopkins University summer engineering program.
The Dearborn, Mich.-based auto manufacturer called the event an opportunity for prospective engineers of the future to explore some of the car safety technologies that are about to emerge for the ultimate test drive in the marketplace.
The innovations included a Ford-developed concept designed to improve the safety of seat belts for backseat passengers by incorporating some of the same technology used for front-seat airbags.
Srini Sundararajan, the Ford team leader on the project, demonstrated what he called the world's first inflatable seat belts — to be introduced when the 2011 Explorer comes on the market this year — for a group of high school students in the Engineering Innovation summer program.
Glenn Hefter, a rising senior at St. Mary's High School in Bayville, N.Y., was the first student from his group to volunteer to be a guinea pig.
Sundararajan explained that the buckle of the seatbelt acts as a conduit to a small canister concealed beneath the seat. When a sensor detects a crash, the compressed gas is released into the hollow part of the belt, which expands to a padded restraint about 5 inches wide — compared with a strip of fabric 1 1/4-inch wide on a conventional belt — in a matter of milliseconds.
"It distributes the load better so the risk of chest injury is lower," Sundararajan said.
When the belt was suddenly inflated, Hefter's face broke into a surprised grin. He was, to say the least, impressed.
"It feels like you're much safer and it really supports the neck in the crash," Hefter said.
Casey Robbins, a soon-to-be senior from Mira Loma, Calif., said the inflatable seat belt was "cool."
"It was pretty comfortable. It was a lot more comfortable for me than a regular seat belt," she said. "If I were to get a new car, I would look into getting this technology."
The students were participants in a college-level, intensive course at the Homewood campus for students around the country who have shown a high level of achievement in math and science, according to program director Meg Bentley. For the students, the demonstration was a welcome break from long hours in the classroom.
The inflatable seat belt will start out as an option for the Explorer at a cost of about $500. Ford will evaluate customer reaction, and if it is positive, it could eventually migrate to other models. Meanwhile, many other auto manufacturers are conducting their own safety research and developing competing technologies.
"We are sure the other companies will follow us," said Sundararajan, a 22-year Ford veteran.
Also on display was a radar-based technology designed to warn drivers — with both an audio alert and flashing lights on the dashboard — that their vehicle is about to crash into something ahead, such as the rear of another car. The system would send a signal to the brakes, preparing the car to stop immediately when the driver applies just light pressure to the pedal. Another system warns drivers of cars coming into the blind spots on either side of the car.
At least one of the technologies on display for the teens actually puts more power into the hands of their parents. A programmable key would let parents set a maximum speed for the vehicle or cut off the radio if all passengers are not buckled in.
One of the "older" technologies — but one new to most of the students — was a radar-based system that lets a driver hand over most of the job of parallel parking to an electronic system.
The system, offered on some 2010 Ford and Lincoln-Mercury models as a $595 option, locates and measures a street side space and determines whether it's big enough to fit into. With the push of a button, the car takes over the parallel-parking function except for braking, letting the car slide backward and then forward into a space.
"It's pretty unbelievable how smart it is," said senior Henry Lenihan of Crestview, Colo., who said he barely made it through that section of his driver's license test.
Sundararajan could empathize. "I wish I had it when I took my driver's license" exam, he said.
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