National Highway Traffic Safety Administration passed regulations in the late 70’s requiring active safety features of either an airbag system or automatic seat belts by the late 80’s (the legal saga of those regulations coming into effect is its own long story). Then, in 1995, airbags became mandatory, so the automatic seatbelt systems became redundant for regulatory compliance. And culturally, by 1995 people actually were choosing to wear their seatbelts, so that the automatic seatbelt systems didn’t actually make as big of a difference in practice.
There were probably a lot of reasons why automatic seat belts were a passing phase, but the safety regulations you mention were likely the most significant. I believe automatic seat belts were considered valid passive side restraint and cheaper to implement until side airbag technology became the more economic choice. Plus all of the additional downsides like mechanical complexity and consumer preference stuff mentioned in other replies.
Anecdotally, the non-seat-belt types I knew would always just keep in unbuckled anyways. 🤷
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration passed regulations in the late 70’s requiring active safety features of either an airbag system or automatic seat belts by the late 80’s (the legal saga of those regulations coming into effect is its own long story). Then, in 1995, airbags became mandatory, so the automatic seatbelt systems became redundant for regulatory compliance. And culturally, by 1995 people actually were choosing to wear their seatbelts, so that the automatic seatbelt systems didn’t actually make as big of a difference in practice.
There were probably a lot of reasons why automatic seat belts were a passing phase, but the safety regulations you mention were likely the most significant. I believe automatic seat belts were considered valid passive side restraint and cheaper to implement until side airbag technology became the more economic choice. Plus all of the additional downsides like mechanical complexity and consumer preference stuff mentioned in other replies.
Anecdotally, the non-seat-belt types I knew would always just keep in unbuckled anyways. 🤷