STOCKHOLM, Sweden, June 7, 2005 (PRIMEZONE) -- The U.S. agency National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has awarded Jan Olsson its Safety Engineering Excellence Award. He has worked for Autoliv -- the worldwide leader in automotive safety systems -- for eighteen years and has been instrumental in the development of many of the most important safety systems in today's vehicles. He received NHTSA's prestigious award ``for unique innovations and visionary leadership in crash safety development".
Mr. Olsson started as a crash test engineer in 1977 at Volvo's Safety Test Center and took an active part in the development of Volvo's first airbag system, launched in 1986. In 1987 he started with Autoliv, developed the company's first airbag and proposed a side-impact airbag as early as in 1989. This initiated a process that led to the launch in 1994 of the world's first side-impact airbag for chest protection. Jan Olsson then led the team that engineered the side airbag and put it into commercial production.
He also led the engineering teams, and later the Autoliv subsidiary, that developed the world's first curtain airbag and the Anti Whiplash System (AWS). Curtain airbags are being introduced in most new vehicle models for head protection in side impacts, while AWS is the most efficient anti-whiplash protection system in modern vehicles. Both systems were launched in 1998.
For the last eight years, Jan has held the position of Vice President Engineering with global responsibility for Autoliv's product development and application engineering. During his leadership, the company has launched such systems as the world's first smart airbags, anti-sliding bag, smart seat belt with adaptive load limiter and fixed-hub steering wheel with the world's first asymmetric driver airbag. Autoliv has also entered into the area of active safety and, for instance, started to develop night vision systems based on far infrared technology. Our first such system will be launched before the end of this year.
Jan Olsson will receive the Safety Engineering Excellence Award at the conference Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV) that takes place this week in Washington, DC. ESV is the world-leading forum of its kind, organized by the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) who are also responsible for ESV's scientific secretariat.
Autoliv Inc. develops and manufactures automotive safety systems for all major automotive manufacturers in the world. Together with its joint ventures Autoliv has 80 facilities with 40,0000 employees in 30 vehicle-producing countries. In addition, the company has development and engineering centers in six countries around the world, including 20 test tracks, more than any other automotive safety supplier. Sales in 2004 amounted to US $6.1 billion. The Company's shares are listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE:ALV) and its Swedish Depository Receipts on the OM Stockholm Stock Ex-change (SSE: ALIV).
This information was brought to you by Waymaker http://www.waymaker.net
The following files are available for download:
http://wpy.waymaker.net/client/waymaker1/WOLReleaseFile.aspx?id=105495&fn=wkr0007.pdf