Take a good, hard look at this odd piece of automotive technology. Note the purpose, design and use of it. Now tell me, what is it?

You don’t know what it’s called?

Well, I’m here to break down the “Seatbelt Dongle”, which is what this apparatus is called in underground car interior design circles. Few may know the deep and rooted history of this little known piece of technology, but it has it’s humble beginnings. Starting with the 1930 Bentley 4 1/2 Liter, if the owner optioned seat belts Bentley would send a personal butler to go with the car. The only purpose of this butler is to hand the seatbelt to the other butler driving the car, thus starting the first seat belt presenter. This carried on for a few years in small circles, until the mid 70’s.

Starting as a high dollar, non listed option on the top secret Rolls Royce Silver Shadow “High Roller” edition, this seatbelt presenter removed the need for a puny human life to give you your safety device. This was the first, so claimed “dongle” in existence. However, it’s still not quite the style you see today. This first dongle was actually HAND OPERATED. This apparatus used a selection of gears and a crank to locate the seatbelt to the perfect position for the dignitary to grab before dictating an entire country and executing naysayers. Despite this, it wouldn’t be long for the next innovation.

And hence we arrive to today, the modern seatbelt dongle. It can be seen in cars from Bugatti to Hyundai, but most don’t know the hidden secrets behind them. But now you do!