C OVER STORY   Intervie w

© Bernhard Sturm | Autoliv

“New types of tests will be needed
for more complex crashes”
The safety features that protect car occupants and pedestrians are becoming increasingly complex,
but also more effective. At the same time, the digital services that we will need if we are to achieve
Vision Zero are growing in importance. In the interview, Dr. Nils Lübbe and Christian Cavell from
Autoliv describe the latest safety, braking and airbag solutions and explain why the Swedish company
set up its new Mobility Safety Solutions department for the non-automotive field in May 2020.

ATZ _ Nils Lübbe, Christian Cavell, autono-
mous driving will lead to the need for new
kinds of safety systems to protect the occu-
pants of passenger vehicles. What solutions
have you developed in this area?
LÜBBE _ A number of studies have shown
that autonomous vehicles will still crash.
26
Crash types with simple kinematics,
such as rear-end impacts, are likely to
reduce substantially, but the number of
more complex crashes, such as intersec-
tions crashes, will not decrease to the
same extent. We have calculated that the
severity of the remaining accidents will
remain almost unchanged over the com-
ing years. Because of the complexity of
the occupant kinematics, we will need
more safety features in the future and
these will become increasingly complex.
As for existing safety features, the new
safety features will have to engage
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 © Bernhard Sturm | Autoliv
© Emilia Dalén

Dr. Dipl.-Wirt.-Ing. Nils Lübbe (born in 1982) has been Director of
Research at Autoliv in Vårgårda (Sweden) since 2018. In this role
he is responsible for accident research, biomechanics and concept
development. He studied industrial engineering in Siegen (Ger-
many) and automotive engineering in Gothenburg (Sweden) and
then began his professional career in 2008 as a development engi-
neer for vehicle safety at Toyota in Brussels (Belgium). In 2013 he
spent a year at the Toyota Technical Center in Susono (Japan) and
returned to Europe as Senior Engineer. He moved to Autoliv in
2016, where he was initially involved in integrated safety before
becoming Group Manager for Accident Research. He completed
his doctorate at Chalmers University of Technology in 2015 and
was appointed Associate Professor in September 2018.
Dipl.-Ing. Christian Cavell (born in 1969) has been Global Sales
Director Mobility Safety Solutions at Autoliv in Dachau (Germany)
since July 2018. After taking a degree in production engineering at
the Technical University of Munich, he joined Autoliv in 1996. He
has held a number of positions in different departments at the
Swedish specialist safety company during the course of his career.
Until 1999 he was Sales Engineer for Airbags and Safety Belts on
the Asian market based in Dachau and Elmshorn (Germany).
In 2000 he became Program Manager for the European and Asian
spare parts business in Ogden (USA). He was Plant Manager for
Spare Parts at Autoliv in Dachau from 2001 to 2010 and then from
2010 to 2018 he held the positions of Global Sales Director Special
Products Europe and Sales Director Service Parts.

quickly with the occupants and use all
the available forward displacement space
while controlling and distributing the
impact forces. If the interiors of new
vehicles provide the occupants with
more room during autonomous driving,
this additional room can also be used to
improve safety.
There will no longer be someone sitting
permanently behind the steering wheel.
Does this mean that we will need to measure
the effectiveness of airbags in a different
way from the perspective of NHTSA and
Euro NCAP tests, for example?
LÜBBE _ Consumer tests and assessment
programs only cover a selection of the
collision scenarios that occur in reality.
Research projects regularly identify
the best possible choice of tests for the
conditions that can be expected in the
ATZ worldwide 01|2021    27
future. There is a particular focus on vir-
tual validation, which means using com-
puter models instead of physical crash
tests with dummies. Computer models
allow a variety of real-life scenarios to be
investigated more efficiently. The organi-
“The life cell airbag
hugs the occupant”
zations that are responsible for the con-
sumer tests and assessment programs
are familiar with the research projects
and communication generally functions
very well in this area. I believe that we
will see a gradual expansion of the
defined test positions that will better rep-
resent the complexity of future crashes.
Is an interior monitoring function
needed to ensure that your systems
operate to their full potential?
LÜBBE _ Modern safety systems are often
extremely robust and cover a wide range
of use cases without the need for inte-
rior monitoring. Interior monitoring
may be useful to find the best balance
between the lighter and heavier passen-
gers and their possible seat positions,
but it does not seem to me to be essen-
tial. An external monitoring system
that adapts the safety system to the
severity of the crash could also be use-
ful. However, cameras are not the only
solution in either of these cases. We
have had good experiences with other
types of sensors, including some that
are already available on the market,
such as radar and time-of-flight lidar.
Alternatively, signals from interior com-
C OVER STORY   Intervie w
ponents could be generated, recorded
and processed. We are currently con­
sidering such concepts.
Passengers in autonomous vehicles are
likely to behave as if they were at home
in their living room. Where will the airbags
and safety belts be fitted?
LÜBBE _ We need to start with defin-
ing which behaviors and seating or
lying positions we permit; only then
we can develop the corresponding
safety systems. It is not easy to define
and design these positions. It is also
imaginable that we will develop safety
systems for seating positions that are
not yet pos­sible or permitted. We always
have to investigate the installation of
these systems in detail, but we can
already today mount seatbelts and air-
bags on the vehicle body or integrate
them into the seats.
Are there other new restraint concepts
for these cases?
LÜBBE _ A long time ago we presented
the 3+2 criss-cross belt, which has an
additional shoulder belt to control the
movement of occupants more effective­
­ly, particularly in intersection crash­­es,
to minimize the risk of slipping out of
the belt and to distribute the belt forces
over a larger area and thereby to help
“Our Safety Score
app analyzes
driving styles”
prevent the rib fractures. We also de­­
veloped the pelvis restraint cushion,
an airbag under the surface of the seat
that generates additional restraining
forces for the pelvis, in order to reduce
the risk of submarining, which is when
the occupant slides out under the lap
belt. For reclined occupants, this is an
alternative to the knee airbag, in case it
is not possible to position a knee airbag
suitably. And finally Autoliv has devel-
oped the completely new life cell air-
bag, which is integrated into the seat.
It opens forward and “hugs” the occu-
pant of the seat from both sides.
Research and development processes
are becoming increasingly complex and
this often means that one automotive
28
© Emilia Dalén | Autoliv
Automated driving is not a silver bullet when it comes to road safety: the severity
of the remaining accidents will remain almost unchanged in the future, explains Lübbe
industry supplier cannot cover all of them
single-handedly. Which universities are you
cooperating with and which partnerships
are you involved in?
LÜBBE _ On the research side, we do a
lot of work with universities in Sweden
and in other European countries, includ-
ing on projects that are fully or partly
publicly funded. These projects may
involve as many as 30 partners. We also
commission international universities to
carry out research projects. We choose
our partners on the basis of their core
competencies and the type of research
we need.
Autoliv has set up a new Mobility Safety
Solutions department that is also known
as MSS in short. Please explain to us
what it is all about and what you hope
it will achieve.
CAVELL _ Autoliv has changed its mission  increase in the market potential of the
statement to: “Providing World Class
Life-saving Solutions for Mobility and
Society.” MSS will focus on this with
the aim of saving lives outside vehicles
and in the field of mobility as a whole.
Our intention is for our products to be
used in other areas of life with the same
objective.
LÜBBE _ We have calculated how many
lives we can save if we restrict our-
selves to the car occupants or if we take
a broader approach. Our current annual
figure is 30,000 lives saved and we tar-
get to reach 100,000 by 2030. We have
pooled our expertise in the MSS depart-
ment so that we can achieve our target.
Please tell us more about the five
main areas of MSS.
CAVELL _ The first area is vulnerable road
users, such as pedestrians and cyclists,
because around 50 % of all deaths on
the roads take place outside the car. This
involves products such as active hood
lifters, pedestrian airbags, motorcycle
airbags and portable airbags. Secondly,
we have pyro-safety. Our Pyrotechnic
Safety Switch (PSS or pyroswitch for
short) can be used both inside and out-
side cars. It allows the electrical supply
to be safely switched off in order to pre-
vent vehicle fires. The growing number
of electric cars has led to a significant
pyroswitch. For example, in California
the sale of new combustion-engine vehi-
cles will be banned from 2035. In addi-
tion, we can also make our expertise
available for applications where an
object such as a bolt has to be moved
very quickly. The third area relates
to new safety systems for seats. This
includes all aspects of child safety and
innovative seat concepts, for example for
autonomous vehicles. Fourthly, we aim
to use the same products in commercial
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vehicles as we do in cars, but also
­additional systems to further improve
the safety of truck drivers. The fifth
and final area consists of our digital ser-
vices. One of these is our Safety Score
smartphone app that collects and ana-
lyzes data about people’s driving styles
and provides feedback in the form of a
point score. One potential market for
this is all types of carpools and car shar-
ing schemes that want their customers
to feel safe.
Historically Autoliv has been a tier-1
supplier. You make money by selling
parts and systems to car manufacturers
and they in turn sell their products to end
­customers. What do you think the c­ ustomers
and products of your new MSS department
will be like?
CAVELL _ We will have a completely new
set of customers. In many cases we can
concentrate on selling to resellers or even
go one step further and develop business-
to-customer relationships. Our business
models at Autoliv will be changing and,
as we have already mentioned, we will
be focusing on protection systems for
urban mobility and PSS systems.
Is there a demand for these products?
Do you have clear value propositions
Autoliv now supplies life-saving solutions not only for mobility systems, but also for society as a
whole, one example is the pyroswitch that can be used outside cars, says Cavell
ATZ worldwide 01|2021    29
that give Autoliv a unique role
in these new markets?
CAVELL _ Very much so. As our mobility
systems are changing, so is the demand.
Autoliv aims to sell world-class products
which improve real-life safety. If we
apply this approach to the new product
areas, we can offer solutions that are
both effective and valuable.
LÜBBE _ Our history goes back more
than 65 years and we are proud that we
can exceed the regulation and rating
requirements and save lives in the real
world. We have cutting-edge expertise
in accident analysis and biomechanics
which we can transfer to other markets
and products that are new to us. We
will not sell products unless we are fully
­convinced of their benefits.
CAVELL _ Perhaps we need to look at
­different ways of selling our products
in these new markets. Autoliv has a
very good reputation in the automotive
industry and it will undoubtedly take
us a little while to become established
in other markets.
Some of the business opportunities use
proven Autoliv technologies and products,
while others are completely new and relate
to totally different industries. Will you be
establishing research, development, proto-
© Bernhard Sturm | Autoliv
typing and production facilities that are
separate from Autoliv?
CAVELL _ We have set up a Global Inno­
vation Center in the Swedish town of
Vårgårda, which is around 70 km from
Gothenburg, where we can assess new
ideas. It employs around 200 people
and, as our order book grows, we will
increase the size of the workforce. Proto-
typing and testing will take place in our
existing facilities and will be adapted to
the new test standards. As far as manu-
facturing is concerned, we will integrate
it into the most suitable plant from the
perspective of cost, availability and
logistics.
A brief question on the subject of the
­competition for talent. As a supplier, how
easy is it for you to find all the specialist
employees and graduates you need when
you are competing with well-known car
­manufacturers such as Audi and Volvo?
LÜBBE _ We have hardly any problem
­ lling our vacancies in research, but
fi
the numbers here are relatively small
because of the low staff turnover. We
have employees who are leading experts
in their technical fields and who have
good networks as a result of their project
work and university teaching. That is
likely attractive to talented young peo-
ple. We try to develop close relationships
with students at an early stage with mas-
ter theses carried out at Autoliv, before
they appear on the job market as gradu-
ates. I often hear people saying very pos-
itive things about Sweden; I think our
location also gives us an advantage.
Christian Cavell, Nils Lübbe, thank you
for this interesting interview.
You can read more of the interview
in German on our online portal at
www.springerprofessional.de.
INTERVIEW: Michael Reichenbach