don’t you just hate seatbelts. Especially when its warm or you are wearing heavy clothes. They are either too long or too short; too tight or too lax. You can never find the little slot that the fixing end goes into and the straps get into a right old mess.
my seatbelts are computer programmed to sense my size and shape and at the press of a button these arms proceed smoothly from the side of the seat to take my measure and take up a position that is comforting and safe. They will allow me to move about like the old type do but will, in the event of the car stopping suddenly, immediately hold me gently yet in a manly grip until the crisis is over.
Quch!-- po, Dec 06 2001 Hug Vouchers http://www.halfbake...idea/Hug_20VouchersGet a hug without having to go in a car. [pottedstu, Dec 07 2001, last modified Oct 05 2004] Temple Grandin's Hug Machine https://web.archive...ism.org/hugbox.htmlThis could be made into a pneumatic coach. [hello_c, Dec 07 2001, last modified Oct 21 2004] Joe Is My Interactive Bra http://www.hi-d.com/issue1/jb0.html(Couldn't resist it - a favourite link) This idea can be simply extended to be a seatbelt [hippo, Dec 07 2001, last modified Oct 21 2004] not 'wandering hands' seatbelts then...-- lewisgirl, Dec 06 2001 Or could be big hug auto seats where the whole seat morphs, in a masculine way, to hold you snug. I always wanted four point seat belts myself. I think the advantages outweigh the hassle or restricted movement.-- bristolz, Dec 06 2001 <<masculine shaped arms that cuddle you gently at the press of a button.>>
Why do I sense that the road-safety aspect of this is just a smokescreen?
And I'm guessing that the male-driver version would give you a blowjob so you die happy.-- pottedstu, Dec 06 2001 seat belts are fine, except for the comfort and ease aspect. there is no smokescreen - it is fog season in London-- po, Dec 06 2001 I'm not a physicist, but I don't think you can't be held gently in your seat during a sudden stop. You can have gentle, or you can stay in your seat, but you can't have both.-- bookworm, Dec 06 2001 I'm not a physicist either, but I chew gum after eating.-- lewisgirl, Dec 06 2001 I can just see people all across the world braking suddenly to get big hugs.-- pottedstu, Dec 06 2001 [PeterSealy] I had guessed you were younger than 50.-- bristolz, Dec 07 2001 And one of the few 13 year olds with a PhD. I'm impressed.-- bristolz, Dec 07 2001 each to his own, M-- po, Dec 07 2001 I do good hugs. And I'm not a geek or a lecherous 50-year old. I know some geeks and lechers though, if you really want.-- lewisgirl, Dec 07 2001 lg: How masculine-shaped are your arms?-- pottedstu, Dec 07 2001 better since I started rock climbing. Oh sorry, I thought this was the skills swap shop.-- lewisgirl, Dec 07 2001 Would there be a number of big manly arms to choose from. For example if you like your man hairy, you could have big monkeyman arms. If you like the clean shaven 'boyband' type, you could have your arms cleanly shaven and moisturised. Speaking as a member of the monkeyman fraternity, i'd go for the latter, after all, variety is the spice of life.-- garlic twins, Dec 07 2001 euuuwww. Shaven arms. Yeugh.-- lewisgirl, Dec 07 2001 (considers posting Arm Wig idea)-- pottedstu, Dec 07 2001 PeterSealy, my drivers' ed class dealt with seatbelt use as a secondary issue. Their primary focus was a program they had evidently worked out with the Hollywood movie industry to test the target audience (teenagers) to see just how gory a movie could be before it induced mass vomiting.-- beauxeault, Dec 07 2001 (Please don't use "egnor-yuck" anything. Feel free to use [waugsqueke yuck boring] if you want.)-- egnor, Dec 07 2001 Strangely enough, just after my last job as a sunvisor engineer, I moved into auto restraints, (ie. seat belts and airbags).
Lately we've been designing them to unwind a little if they lock up in an accident, in order to dissipate the crash energy. There's also buckle pretensioners, which work sortof like the gas charges in airbags, only they expand a small cylinder very fast, which is attached to a cable, which pulls on the buckle so as to tighten up any slack in the belt during an accident. Slack is a bad thing, 'cause the acceleration of the person in a slack belt would increase the chest pressure even higher once you hit.
There's an odd sort of balance that has to be played out in these things; if you design a seat belt to be very light on the chest while driving, then either it has to have very low friction in winding and unwinding, or it will be very slow upon return, which is annoying and increases the chance of it getting caught in the door. Reducing the friction usually requires more specialized materials and is therefore expensive to do in most vehicles.
If belts getting all tangled is an issue, look for vehicles with all black belts. These are the usual color for a belt made out of a newer material that is supposed to minimize tangles and creasing.
Also, if your belt is slightly torn or shredded, replace it. A torn belt will not sustain the loads upon impact, even if the fraying is relatively minor.
New cars sold in the states have rear belts that are equipped with child seat attachment modes. If you pull the belt all the way out, it will start to click as you feed back in, and can't be backed out. This is the child-seat anchorage mode, used to tie down most types of child seats. One problem with this mode, though, is that if the belt gets twisted and then wound up that way, then the spool might not disengage from this mode. You may have to pull out the seat or trim panel or whatever and correct whatever twist occurs in the webbing in order to prevent this from happening.-- RayfordSteele, Feb 28 2002 [RayfordSteele], it's nice to see serious input from someone involved in a field of which most of us have limited, if any, knowledge.I'm keen to know how much engineering a sunvisor needs.(Later) I've just read your input on "improved sun visors", and all (most, anyway) is made clear.-- angel, Mar 01 2002 Ditto. Rayford, I love the inside perspective you bring to ideas such as this. I like the idea of feminine big hug arms (even beyond the scope of this idea), but I'm concerned if they would be strong enough without looking like Steroid Woman.
What a great job title. Did you actually write that on forms?
Occupation: [__sunvisor engineer____]-- waugsqueke, Mar 01 2002 Good luck selling to straight guys, you'll need it.-- JimX, Dec 21 2003 make that uptight straight guys. absolutely nothing wrong with a big hug. +-- stilgar, May 11 2004 random, halfbakery