Active Headrests

Description

Have the headrest move forward in a crash to reduce the risk of neck injuries.

Competitive/Pricing/Notes

Active headrests can reduce the load on the neck in rear-end collisions. The force of a front-Seat occupant On the seatback is used to activate the system, moving the head restraint forward immediately to firmly support the occupant’s head and mitigate the impact to the neck region.

Neck injuries account for approximately 90% of all injuries in rear-end collisions. Over 90% of the injuries sustained by occupants whose vehicles are struck in rear-end collisions are to the neck region. More than 200,000 people in the US suffer such injuries annually.

In performance tests conducted by Nissan, an active headrest effectively helps reduce the force (moment) acting to bend the neck backward in a rear-end collision.

Moderator: A few manufactures offer active headrests in select models, but it has not been adopted industry-wide, perhaps due to added cost and/or other design changes to reduce such risks.  With different body types (i.e. tall and short), it may cause more problems than it attempts to prevent.

Status

Unknown