Lennart Lindblad, founder of Autoliv, Inc. (NYSE: ALV and SSE: ALIVsdb), was awarded the 2016 Polhem Prize, Sweden’s most prestigious innovation award for cutting-edge innovations.
Lennart Lindblad invented significant improvements to the seat belt, a groundbreaking innovation that pioneered the market in the 1950’s. In 1953, Lennart started Autoservice AB. Later, the company changed name to Autoliv, and turned into an international company with more than 68,000 employees.
“We are very proud to learn that our founder has been awarded Sweden’s most prestigious innovation prize. Lennart’s initial vision of saving more lives is still present in everything we do at Autoliv. Every year, our products save more than 30,000 lives and prevent ten times as many severe injuries. The next step is to further reduce road traffic accidents with active safety systems to assist the driver to avoid an accident or reduce the speed of impact, thereby substantially mitigating the severity of injuries,” says Jan Carlson, Chairman, President and CEO of Autoliv.
Lennart Lindblad, aged 86, is still developing safety solutions. Currently, he is developing an automatic tightening solution for truck straps.
