Airbags serve to protect occupants from potentially deadly impacts on most parts of the vehicle’s interior. But what about impact between say, the driver and the passenger? Well, for that, Hyundai Motor Group will have you and your passenger covered in its future cars.
The South Korean automaker has developed an airbag that expands into the space between the driver’s and passenger to prevent the front row occupants from colliding into each other (which could be just as deadly, btw). Using the group’s newly patented technology, Hyundai Motor Group said it has developed the lightest-weight center side airbags in the world.
This airbag serve to separate the driver and passenger, thus preventing head injuries in an unfortunate accident. If there’s no front passenger, the airbag will still deploy to protect the driver from any side collision coming from the right side. This new center side airbag is designed to be installed inside the driver’s seat and like all airbag, it will be activated in a snap when impact is detected.
Hyundai Motor Group said it anticipate the new center side airbag to reduce head injuries from occupants colliding into each other by 80 percent.
“Airbag has an internal component called tether which allows the airbag to maintain its form and withstand the passenger’s weight. Hyundai Motor Group has developed a new technology to simplify the design and reduce the weight of component produce an airbag which is about 500g lighter than the competing products. Thanks to the smaller size of the airbag, the Group’s design teams will have more flexibility in the type of seat design they envision for future products.”
Hyundai Motor Group expects to roll out the new center side airbag in upcoming vehicles. Though it did not explicitly say when or in which marque and models.
All images courtesy of Hyundai Motor Group.