General Motors has spent more than a century developing automotive safety technologies, from the electric self-starter introduced on the 1912 Cadillac to modern driver-assistance systems. During GM’s Global Safety Week, Regina Carto, Vice President of Global Product Safety, Systems and Certification, highlighted several of the company’s safety milestones.
GM’s Early Automotive Safety Innovations
GM introduced the electric self-starter on the 1912 Cadillac at a time when starting a vehicle required physically turning a starting handle. The process could also be dangerous, and a friend of Cadillac founder Henry Leland is said to have died after being struck by one.
In 1924, GM opened Milford Proving Ground, which the automaker describes as the world’s first automotive test facility. Nine years later, the company introduced crash testing.
Early crash tests involved significant risks. Engineers drove vehicles toward barriers and jumped out before impact, while rollover testing involved pushing vehicles off ramps and down hills. Remote controls were eventually developed, and the Hybrid III crash-test dummy was introduced in 1977.
The broader family of crash-test dummies allows researchers to assess potential injuries to occupants of different sizes.
Seatbelts, Child Seats and Airbags
Stricter automotive safety measures were introduced by the U.S. government during the 1960s, including the Highway Safety Act in 1966. While Volvo pioneered the modern three-point seatbelt in 1959, GM introduced its Child Love Seat in 1967.
GM’s child-seat offerings included a front-facing booster for older children and a rear-facing model for infants. That same year, the automaker introduced an energy-absorbing steering column designed to retract up to 8.25 inches away from the driver during a crash.
A few years later, GM introduced what it describes as the first automotive airbag system put into production. Called the Air Cushion Restraint System, it debuted on a limited-series 1973 Chevrolet Impalas.
The system consisted of two airbags: one for the driver mounted in the steering wheel and another for passengers mounted under the dashboard.
OnStar Brought Connectivity to GM Vehicles
In 1996, GM helped pioneer the modern connected car with OnStar, which debuted on 1997 Cadillac models. In its early days, the system could connect a vehicle to a live OnStar Advisor when an airbag deployed.
Today, the system offers functions including remote vehicle diagnostics and in-vehicle Wi-Fi hotspots. An eligible service plan also supports Super Cruise hands-free driver assistance, which surpassed one billion customer-driven miles earlier this year.
GM Safety Features Introduced This Century
GM continued introducing safety technologies in the 21st century. In 2011, the automaker announced a front-center airbag designed to help prevent drivers and front passengers from colliding with each other.
Rear Seat Reminder followed in 2016, prompting drivers to check the back seats to help prevent situations such as leaving children in hot vehicles.
In 2019, GM introduced Buckle to Drive. The feature can prevent a driver from shifting out of Park for up to 20 seconds when a required front seatbelt is unbuckled.
GM’s Next Chapter in Automotive Safety
For the 2023 model year, GM made five active safety features standard on most of its vehicles: automatic emergency braking, forward collision alert, front pedestrian braking, lane keep assist with lane departure warning, and IntelliBeam automatic high-beam control.
GM, like several other automakers, aims for a future of zero crashes. Honda is targeting zero traffic-collision fatalities involving its automobiles and motorcycles worldwide by 2050.
The approaches include advances in driver-assistance and automated-driving technologies. Those systems still face challenges including high costs, weak demand and limited operating conditions, while GM’s history reflects the company’s continued development of automotive safety innovations.
