Airbags keep proliferating throughout the interiors of our automobiles. What started out in the steering wheel soon multiplied to the dashboard, door panels, seat frames, window frames, knee panels, and elsewhere. The next frontier for airbag installation, however, may not be inside the vehicle, but on the outside.
Volvo became the first to install an external airbag when it fitted one between the hood and windshield on the V40, pictured above.
The device was designed to mitigate injury to a pedestrian by cushioning his or her head upon impact. As pioneering as Volvo has been, however, in implementing exterior airbags, it won’t be the last.
Recently merged component supplier giants ZF and TRW have been experimenting with other ideas. One possibility they recently demonstrated would mount an airbag outside on the side of the vehicle that would inflate just prior to impact in the event of a side-impact collision in order to mitigate the prospect of injury to the vehicle’s occupants. Another would detonate a small charge to push the seat away from the door under similar conditions. Among others, Autoliv – which developed the pedestrian hood airbag with Volvo – has experimented with a steel tube fitted with balloons that would inflate to protect pedestrians.
Automotive News points out that the emergence of autonomous vehicles could stand to reduce the number and degree of traffic accidents, and therefore the need for more airbags. However their widespread implementation is still years, if not decades, away. In the meantime we can expect automakers and their suppliers to continue developing new safety measures both on the inside and the outside of new cars.
