Studies show that the insistent sound convinces the occasional user, who forgets the belt on short trips or in the app, to buckle it up
You’ve probably noticed: seatbelt warnings on new cars have gotten more insistent and louder, but there’s a statistic behind it. In the United States, even with the use of belts above 90%, almost half of the people who die in traffic accidents were not using the equipment. It was this data that led automakers to adopt increasingly annoying reminders.
According to data from NHTSA, the American federal traffic agency, 48% of the 22,713 people killed in accidents in 2024 were without a belt. Even so, half of the victims in collisions did not need the equipment, says Jessica Jermakian, vice president of research at the IIHS (Insurance Institute for Highway Safety), in an interview with the Motor1 website.
It draws attention because, in terms of protection, driving has never been safer: airbags, stability control and automatic emergency braking have become commonplace. Even so, American traffic deaths have risen again, and the unbuckled belt appears as the common link in half of the cases.
To change this scenario, the IIHS, maintained by insurance companies and a reference in safety tests, started in 2022 to evaluate the belt reminders of new cars. The analysis considers the audible and visual alerts of the front seats and the second row, taking into account volume, frequency and duration. To receive the maximum score, Good, the vehicle needs to emit an audible warning of at least 90 seconds when an occupant is not seatbelted.
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The effect was swift. In search of good grades, manufacturers have started to install more persistent and often annoying systems, with louder, more frequent beeps that refuse to stop. Among the 2025 models tested by the institute, which does not evaluate all new cars, almost 70% earned the Good rating.
And the nuisance, it seems, works. The IIHS tests show that more insistent reminders convince precisely the occasional user, the one who forgets the belt or dispenses with it on short trips, in a taxi or in the app car, to buckle it.
In Brazil, the use is mandatory for all occupants, in front and behind, by the Traffic Code, and driving without the equipment is a serious infraction. Therefore, the same logic of the automakers applies: the annoying sound on the dashboard is, in practice, a deliberate push so that no one fails to protect themselves.
