Have you noticed that seat belt reminders are getting louder and more insistent? It turns out automakers are being pressured to make them as annoying as possible.
According to Consumer Affairs, it all started in 2002, when the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) began rating every new car’s seat belt reminder. Good ratings were given to cars that had loud and long reminders for all seats. Bad ratings went to those that didn’t.
The first year, only 17% of vehicles tested earned a good rating, while 65% were rated marginal or poor. Apparently, most had seat belt reminders that were too quiet and didn’t last long — so people ignored them.
Of course, poor ratings didn’t sit well with automakers who like using IIHS safety scores to promote their vehicles and sell more models. Fortunately, it was an easy fix.
“Automakers can boost a vehicle’s performance in this test with just some small software changes,” explained IIHS President David Harkey. “These easy tweaks can have a big impact on safety.”
So that’s what they did. In fact, this year 62% of vehicles tested earned a good rating, while only 24% are rated marginal or poor.
Yes, that means seat belt reminders have become more annoying — but it’s a necessary annoyance.
IIHS has found that failing to buckle up plays a big role in crash deaths. In 2022, only half of those in the front seat and a quarter of those in back were belted during the crashes that killed them.
An IIHS study found that a louder and more persistant reminder is more effective at getting people to buckle up than a minimal reminder, and could therefore save a lot of lives.
“The math is pretty simple,” said David Kidd, an IIHS researcher. “We found that an audible reminder that lasts at least 90 seconds increased belt use by around 30%. That means we could save almost 1,600 lives a year if every vehicle on the road was equipped with a good-rated system.”
We believe that makes the annoyance well worth it.