AUDI | PROCON 10 | 1987
The invention of a steering wheel that pulls away from you / AUDI "PROCON 10"
It was 1987, a time when airbags were still expensive and no one could be totally sure they'd actually work when it mattered. Audi chose a different way to protect lives—not with electronics, but with plain physics.
The problem
Airbags back then were costly, and there was always a nagging worry about whether they'd really deploy when you needed them most.
The insight
What if the force of the crash itself could be turned into the force that pulls the steering wheel toward you? No sensors, no explosives needed—just redirecting the energy that was already there.
The idea
Procon-ten (Programmed Contraction-Tension) worked by using a cable to transmit the motion of the engine as it got pushed backward in a head-on collision. This pulled the steering wheel forward, away from the driver, while simultaneously tightening the seatbelt. The very force of the engine moving became the force protecting the people inside.
What happened
In 1987, it became an option across Audi's entire lineup. It was installed in models like the 100/200, V8, and 80/90, and remained in use until 1994. This ad won a GOLD award.
Afterthought
It held up well in head-on crashes, but it was weaker in side impacts, and it came with its own baggage—cost and added weight. In the end, airbags won out, and procon-ten faded away. There's something here worth remembering about advertising: the courage to answer with mechanics instead of electronics, and the reality that even that courage can still lose to the times.
Awards
- Cannes Lions Gold 1987
