A newly designed airbag can ”hear” an accident and will go into series production at a major German car manufacturer next year, the VDO Automotive AG has announced.
The airbag is ten times faster than a conventional airbag and can be re-used after a light accident, VDO said.
A sensor recognises within 0,2 milliseconds after a crash the typical high-frequency vibrations of the car body in a collision, triggering the release of the airbag, the project manager at VDO, Frank Grimm, told a symposium on airbag design in the southwestern German city of Karlsruhe.
About 1 000 scientists and engineers from 25 countries met in Karlsruhe recently to discuss new technology in protecting occupants of automobiles.
Experts said they were concerned about the growing number of SUVs (sports utility vehicles) on the roads.
”SUVs roll over three times more frequently than conventional cars and in accidents with other vehicles seven times as much,” according to Karl-Friedrich Ziegahn of the Fraunhofer-Institute.
Klaus Kompass, an engineer at BMW, said manufacturers were working on airbags in rollover situations. Research was also continuing on introducing motorcycle airbags but the consequences of a malfunction were still too big, Kompass said.
However, it was realistic to expect airbags on certain motorcycles in about 10 years. – Sapa-DPA