Editing Seat belt (section)

===Automatic===
[[File:1990 Honda Civic DX interior.JPG|thumb|Automatic seat belt in a [[Honda Civic]]]]

Seat belts that automatically move into position around a vehicle occupant once the adjacent door is closed and/or the engine is started were developed as a countermeasure against low usage rates of manual seat belts, particularly in the United States. The 1972 [[Volkswagen]] ESVW1 [[Experimental Safety Vehicle]] presented passive seat belts.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.classicvw.org/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.ShowItem&g2_itemId=5498 |title=Experimental Safety Vehicle |website=Classicvw.org |access-date=2011-02-02}}</ref> [[Volvo Cars|Volvo]] tried to develop a passive three point seat belt. In 1973, Volkswagen announced they had a functional passive seat belt.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://safetysells.org/chapter3.pdf |title=Safety Sells: Chapter 3 |access-date=2011-02-02 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110727132439/http://safetysells.org/chapter3.pdf |archive-date=2011-07-27 |url-status=dead }}</ref> The first commercial car to use automatic seat belts was the 1975 [[Volkswagen Golf]].<ref name="passive">{{cite news |title=Passive-Belt Activity |newspaper=The New York Times |date=1978-03-26 }}</ref>

Automatic seat belts received a boost in the United States in 1977 when [[Brock Adams]], [[United States Secretary of Transportation]] in the [[Presidency of Jimmy Carter|Carter Administration]], mandated that by 1983 every new car should have either airbags or automatic seat belts.<ref>{{cite news |title=Airbags, seat belts to be mandatory in every car by 1983 |newspaper=Daily Collegian |location=Penn State |date=1977-07-01 |url= http://digitalnewspapers.libraries.psu.edu/Default/Skins/BasicArch/Client.asp?Skin=BasicArch&&AppName=2&enter=true&BaseHref=DCG/1977/07/01&EntityId=Ar00800 |access-date=2009-12-03 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20120402042227/http://digitalnewspapers.libraries.psu.edu/Default/Skins/BasicArch/Client.asp?Skin=BasicArch&&AppName=2&enter=true&BaseHref=DCG%2F1977%2F07%2F01&EntityId=Ar00800 |archive-date=2012-04-02 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Air Bags, Automatic Seat Belts |newspaper=The Los Angeles Times |date=1977-10-04}}</ref> There was strong lobbying against the passive restraint requirement by the auto industry.<ref>{{cite news |last=Stevens |first=William K. |title=Auto Industry Expresses Reluctance, Resignation Over Air Bag Mandate |newspaper=The New York Times |page=18 |date=1977-07-01 |url= http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FB0A1FF9355D167493C3A9178CD85F438785F9 |access-date=2009-12-03}}</ref> Adams was criticized by [[Ralph Nader]], who said that the 1983 deadline was too late.<ref name="crusade"/> The [[Volkswagen Rabbit]] also had automatic seat belts,<ref name="crusade">{{cite news |last=Haic |first=Marty |title=Crusade Continues, But The Intensity Has Mellowed |newspaper=Boca Raton News |page=8C |date=1979-02-23 |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=Kc0PAAAAIBAJ&pg=6914,4536924&dq=automatic-seat-belts&hl=en |access-date=2009-12-03 }}{{Dead link|date=December 2021 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> and VW said that by early 1978, 90,000 cars had sold with them.<ref name="passive"/>

General Motors introduced a three-point non-motorized passive belt system in 1980 to comply with the passive restraint requirement.<ref name="TRB-48">{{cite report |title=Buckling Up: Technologies to Increase Seat Belt Use |year=2004 |page=48 |url= http://onlinepubs.trb.org/onlinepubs/sr/sr278.pdf |publisher=Transportation Research Board |access-date=14 December 2017}}</ref> However, it was used as an active lap-shoulder belt because of unlatching the belt to exit the vehicle.<ref name="TRB-48"/> Despite this common practice, field studies of belt use still showed an increase in wearing rates with this door-mounted system.<ref name="TRB-48"/> General Motors began offering automatic seat belts on the [[Chevrolet Chevette]].<ref>{{cite news |title=GM Offers Automatic Seat Belts |newspaper=Chicago Tribune |page=8 |date=1978-06-27}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=GM's Automatic Seat Belts Go on Chevettes |newspaper=The Los Angeles Times |date=1978-06-27}}</ref> However, the company reported disappointing sales because of this feature.<ref>{{cite news |title=Sales of Automatic Seat Belts Disappointing, Chevrolet Says |newspaper=Toledo Blade |page=1 |date=1979-02-23 |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=vAoVAAAAIBAJ&pg=5703,3431567&dq=automatic-seat-belts&hl=en |access-date=2009-12-03 }}{{Dead link|date=December 2021 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> For the 1981 model year, the new [[Toyota Mark II#X60|Toyota Cressida]] became the first car to offer motorized automatic passive seat belts.<ref name=Wards81>{{cite book |title=Ward's Automotive Yearbook 1981 |publisher=Ward's Communications | page = 27 |editor-last = Stark | editor-first = Harry A. |date = 1981}}</ref>

A study released in 1978 by the [[United States Department of Transportation]] said that cars with automatic seat belts had a fatality rate of .78 per 100 million miles, compared with 2.34 for cars with regular, manual belts.<ref>{{cite news |last=Girard |first=Penny |title=Study Finds Automatic Seat Belts, Airbags Save Lives |newspaper=St. Petersburg Times |page=1 |date=1978-08-31 |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=vAoVAAAAIBAJ&pg=5703,3431567&dq=automatic-seat-belts&hl=en |access-date=2009-12-03 }}{{Dead link|date=December 2021 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

In 1981, [[Drew Lewis]], the first Transportation Secretary of the [[Presidency of Ronald Reagan|Reagan Administration]], influenced by studies done by the auto industry,<ref>{{cite news |last=Brody |first=Jane E. |title=Personal Health |newspaper=The New York Times |date=1981-12-09 |url= https://www.nytimes.com/1981/12/09/garden/personal-health-124390.html?&pagewanted=all |access-date=2009-12-03}}</ref> dropped the mandate;<ref>{{cite news |title=Automatic seat belt, airbag rules dropped |newspaper=Chicago Tribune |page=1 |date=1981-10-24}}</ref> the decision was overruled in a [[United States courts of appeals|federal appeals court]] the following year,<ref>{{cite news |title=Automatic seat belts ordered |newspaper=Spokane Chronicle |page=28 |date=1982-08-04 |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=n8USAAAAIBAJ&pg=5783,760646&dq=automatic-seat-belts&hl=en |access-date=2009-12-03 }}{{Dead link|date=December 2021 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> and then by the [[Supreme Court of the United States|Supreme Court]].<ref name="time"/> In 1984, the Reagan Administration reversed its course,<ref>{{cite news |title=U.S. to require airbags or automatic seat belts |newspaper=Chicago Tribune |page=1 |date=1984-07-11}}</ref> though in the meantime the original deadline had been extended; [[Elizabeth Dole]], then Transportation Secretary, proposed that the two passive safety restraints be phased into vehicles gradually, from vehicle model year 1987 to vehicle model year 1990, when all vehicles would be required to have either automatic seat belts or driver side air bags.<ref name="time">{{cite magazine |title=Middle Lane: Bags, Belts, and a Loophole |magazine=Time |date=1984-07-23 |url= http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,952435,00.html#ixzz0YgSxo3UC |access-date=2009-12-03 |url-status=dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20101029135838/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0%2C9171%2C952435%2C00.html#ixzz0YgSxo3UC |archive-date=October 29, 2010 }}</ref> Though more awkward for vehicle occupants, most manufacturers opted to use less expensive automatic belts rather than airbags during this time period.

When driver side [[airbags]] became mandatory on all passenger vehicles in model year 1995{{citation needed|date=August 2022}}, most manufacturers stopped equipping cars with automatic seat belts. Exceptions include the 1995–96 [[Ford Escort (North American)|Ford Escort]]/[[Mercury Tracer]] and the [[Eagle Summit |Eagle Summit Wagon]], which had automatic safety belts along with dual airbags.{{Citation needed |date=February 2011}}

====Systems====
* Manual lap belt with automatic motorized shoulder belt: When the door is opened, the shoulder belt moves from a fixed point near the seat back on a track mounted in the door frame of the car to a point at the other end of the track near the windshield. Once the door is closed and the car is started, the belt moves rearward along the track to its original position, thus securing the passenger. The lap belt must be fastened manually.
* Manual lap belt with automatic non-motorized shoulder belt: This system was used in American-market vehicles such as the [[Hyundai Excel]] and [[Volkswagen Jetta]]. The shoulder belt is fixed to the aft upper corner of the vehicle door and is not motorized. The lap belt must be fastened manually.
* Automatic shoulder and lap belts: This system was mainly used in General Motors vehicles, though it was also used on some [[Honda Civic]] hatchbacks and [[Nissan Sentra]] coupes. When the door is opened, the belts go from a fixed point in the middle of the car by the floor to the retractors on the door. Passengers must slide into the car under the belts. When the door closes, the seat belt retracts into the door. The belts have normal release buttons that are supposed to be used only in an emergency, but in practice are routinely used in the same manner as manual seat belt clasps. {{Citation needed |date=September 2010}} This system also found use by [[American Specialty Cars]] when they created the 1991-1994 [[convertible]] special edition of the [[Nissan 240SX]], a car that traditionally had a motorized shoulder belt.

====Disadvantages====
Automatic belt systems generally offer inferior occupant crash protection.<ref>{{cite news |agency=Associated Press |title=Chrysler Doubts Air-Bag Claims |date=1977-09-30 |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=apAjAAAAIBAJ&pg=896,3611827&hl=en |work =The Montreal Gazette |access-date=2010-09-25}}</ref><ref name="Abeles">{{cite thesis |title=The Ability of Automakers to Introduce a Costly, Regulated New Technology: A Case Study of Automotive Airbags in the U.S. Light-Duty Vehicle Market |type=Master's Thesis |year=1998 |first=Ethan |last=Abeles |url=http://pubs.its.ucdavis.edu/publication_detail.php?id=175 |access-date=2010-09-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100612195455/http://pubs.its.ucdavis.edu/publication_detail.php?id=175 |url-status=dead |archive-date=2010-06-12}}</ref> In systems with belts attached to the door rather than a sturdier fixed portion of the vehicle body, a crash that causes the vehicle door to open leaves the occupant without belt protection. In such a scenario, the occupant may be thrown from the vehicle and suffer greater injury or death.<ref name=Abeles/>

Because many automatic belt system designs compliant with the U.S. passive-restraint mandate did not meet the anchorage requirements of [[Canada]] (CMVSS 210)—which were not weakened to accommodate automatic belts—vehicle models that had been eligible for easy importation in either direction across the U.S.-Canada border when equipped with manual belts became ineligible for importation in either direction once the U.S. variants obtained automatic belts and the Canadian versions retained manual belts, although some Canadian versions also had automatic seat belts. Two particular models affected were the [[Dodge Spirit]] and [[Plymouth Acclaim]].<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.tc.gc.ca/media/documents/roadsafety/vafus.pdf |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100821083457/http://www.tc.gc.ca/media/documents/roadsafety/vafus.pdf |archive-date = 2010-08-21 | title= List of Vehicles Admissible From the United States |publisher= Transport Canada |date=2010-07-22 | id = CL9203(E) |pages = 2, 5, 8 }}</ref>

Automatic belt systems also present several operational disadvantages. Motorists who would normally wear seat belts must still fasten the manual lap belt, thus rendering redundant the automation of the shoulder belt. Those who do not fasten the lap belt wind up inadequately protected only by the shoulder belt. In a crash, without a lap belt, such a vehicle occupant is likely to "submarine" (be thrown forward under the shoulder belt) and be seriously injured.{{Citation needed |date=March 2019}} Motorized or door-affixed shoulder belts hinder access to the vehicle, making it difficult to enter and exit—particularly if the occupant is carrying items such as a box or a purse. Vehicle owners tend to disconnect the motorized or door-affixed shoulder belt to relieve the nuisance when entering and exiting the vehicle, leaving only a lap belt for crash protection.{{Citation needed |date=March 2019}} Also, many automatic seat belt systems are incompatible with child safety seats, or only compatible with special modifications.