Axkid safety conference – Axkid UP introduceras

Vi kör summering på engelska från vår systersajt carseat.se. On Tuesday Axkid hosted their first safety conference at the brand new World of Volvo building and it was a huge success with more than 150 car seat crazy people from all over the world.  Awesome presentations, two new seats introduced and a party in the evening.  I told Axkid it was a a terrible first event.  How can the next one be any better?

The whole day was packed with presentations by Lotta Jakobsson, Anders Kullgren, Daniel Johansson, Daniel Lundgren, Andreas Ericsson, Tommy Pettersson, Andrés Moncayo/Markus Jacksch and Johan Andersson.  You know people take things seriously when you don’t hear a single phone ringing during the whole day.

Two new seats were introduced.  An upgraded Axkid ONE 2 which will now be called Axkid ONE 3 with minor upgrades.  How do you make the best rear facing Isofix seat ever made even better?  Not easy.  More interesting was the brand new high booster seat with some very innovative solutions not seen in any other seat.  The new booster is called Axkid UP and weight is around 10 kg.  I got to see a prototype last year and the finished product is very interesting.

Axkid UP basically has four features that aren’t found in any other high back booster.  The approach is a bit like when Axkid ONE was introduced.  Do you remember?  Isofix to 23 kg, sliding on a rail, rear facing until 7 years and weight of 10 kg. Features no-one had ever heard about.

Innovative features not seen in any other high back booster seat:

1. Foldable support leg:  Seat can be used with or without support leg.  Having a high back booster with support leg has been widely debated.  It will add stability and likely improve crash data but seat will also be heavier which we don’t like.

2.  Removable sides: Many boosters have a side impact cushion which can be removed.  BeSafe iZi Flex also has some idiotic plastic crap on the sides which also can be taken off.  Preferably thrown away.  UP has side panels which are completely removable which will make the seat very slim and compact.  Those of us who have worked with car seats for 20+ years will notice some similarities with the ultra light weight high back booster by Volvo introduced ages ago.  Sides of a forward facing booster have small or no safety benefits and are basically there to keep child in place. My guess is that many will believe it makes the seat less safe when side panels are off.  At least until they are educated about reality.

3. Seat is foldable:  This is an uncommon feature and UP will be similar to a TinySeats Two but forward facing only.  Folded size is compact and UP is easy to carry around.

4. Adjustable height of seat cushion:  Huge innovation. The whole purpose of a high back booster seat is to BOOOST and lift kids up from vehicle seat so that bottom part of seat belt will be under the hip bones.  Important since this is the strongest part of a child’s body.  Height of seat cushion is easily adjustable with a handle which makes it very flexible.  A child of five years might need a very different height compared to a nine year old.  I think we will see more booster seats with this feature.  Unless Axkid has patented the shit out the feature.

Over to presentations where three stood out for me, Tommy ”Mr. Rearfacing” Pettersson, Daniel Lundgren and Lotta Jakobsson. I work with Lundgren and Jakobsson in the TK242 group and I have also worked with Pettersson from 2009 until he retired in 2020.  All three presentations had some great information for people who aren’t used to all this in depth knowledge.

Presentations from Lotta at Volvo combine research with every day life which is uncommon.  She likes solutions that are safe, realistic, preferably affordable and easy to use.  Her focus is also of course very much on rear facing and she is also very positive to the forward facing booster cushion.  Of course only for older children.

Daniel Lundgren from Axkid spoke about their Minikid model and overtesting.  That means testing seats for much higher weight than required.  This is a very technical subject and interesting only for some of us. But it’s important since the R129 standard doesn’t have any regulations for maximum weight.  Minikid 4, BeSafe Stretch, Britax Max-Safe M and Britax Max-Safe Pro all have an official weight limit of 36 kg which in reality means nothing. Any brand could say that maximum weight is 50 kg, or more, no testing is required.

Minikid 4 has been tested extensively using the Q10 dummy with great results.  This dummy weighs an impressive 35.6 kg and is 145 cm tall.  It’s our strong recommendation to not get that dummy anywhere near a BeSafe Stretch.  Same with the P10 dummy which ”only” weigh 32.5 kg.  A smallish number of people have seen photos, videos, crash pulses and what happens to Stretch in testing with P10.  Or when medium or large leg space is used during Plus Test.

Tommy Pettersson is called ”Mr. Rear facing”, best nickname ever, and also the founder of Plus Test 15 years ago.  I had the pleasure of having lunch with Tommy and Tony Qvist, founder of Axkid in 2009, during the event. Tommy worked for VTI his whole life and is a legend.  I’ve worked with Tommy in the TK242 group for almost 15 years and been at his crash lab VTI many times.

Tommy spoke about history of the Plus Test and its awesomeness.  He got angry about Sweden having to use the very inferior EU standards and invented the Plus Test.  So far only 48 seats in the world has passed this very difficult test.  Tommy has for decades been an incredible source of information, he has fought like crazy for rear facing usage and can easily be credited with saving hundreds or thousands of children’s lives.