Neck protection in autonomous car crashes

Autonomous cars which are expected to be on the market in the upcoming years, present new challenges to restraint system design since unconventional seating plans can put the occupants at more risk. For instance, an occupant sitting on a rear facing seat can experience higher risk of whiplash in a frontal impact considering the fact that statistically frontal impacts do happen at higher severities than rear impacts as seen in the crash test conditions of US NCAP. In this study, an improvement to car seat design is presented in which the seatback is automatically rotated into a more upright position prior to impact in order to increase the energy absorbing potential of the seatback. The study involves computer simulation of a seat-occupant system to demonstrate the benefits of the proposed system.