You may have heard that Tesla has promised not to initiate patent lawsuits against anyone who wants to use their electric car technology. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has noted his reasons for opening up the patents as including encouraging larger manufacturers to to make electric vehicles, so as to stem the effects of carbon emission on climate change. It’s an altogether altruistic move that has earned Musk and Tesla brownie points for caring more about the planet, than the money they could have made. But this isn’t the first time an automaker has forgone profit for the sake of saving lives.

In 1920 Härnösand, Sweden was a quiet, coastal, industrial town, that garnered no international attention. But on July 17 of that year, Nils Bohlin was born, a man who has saved countless lives, and possibly your own life as well, and it’s unlikely you’ve ever heard his name before. Nils graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering from Härnösand Läroverk at the age of 19. He went to work for Saab as an aircraft designer, and was key in designing the famous ejection seats. And although that invention has gone on to save lives, it wasn’t until 1958 that Bohlin joined Volvo as their first Chief Safety Engineer, where, within a year, a developed the three point seat belt.

The two point seat belt common at the time was rarely worn by drivers or passengers. In high speed crashes the seat belts themselves were shown to cause serious internal injuries, as well as providing minimal protection from the impact itself. Bohlin, who had experience with the complicated four point harnesses used in aircraft at the time, endeavored to find a solution to this problem, one that Bohlin himself said needed to be “simple, effective and could be put on conveniently with one hand.” Volvo, in the first big open source move in the interest of safety in automobiles, made the seat belt design available for free to other manufacturers. Small improvements to the design have been made over the years, but the basic design itself has remained unchanged in the nearly 6 decades since its inception.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, seat belts save about 11,000 lives annually (PDF), and that’s just in the USA. It is estimated that the three point seat belt has saved over a million lives globally.