Putting An Airbags Outside The Car

[beepbeepph]

Hi guys. I just want to ask for your thoughts regarding this matter. Few weeks ago, I read an article about the idea of having an external side airbag. Researchers found that having an external side airbag could reduce the intrusion of the car into the other by a bit more than an inch. Doing this could seriously improve the chances of passengers avoiding serious injury.

[shorod]

Do you have a link to what you were reading? It seems very unlikely to me for practical use since the sensor to fire the air bag would be inside the panel (in practical use) and therefore vehicle-to-vehicle contact would already have to be made before the airbag would fire. So for the airbag to absorb energy, there's very little area for the inflation to occur. The mounting surface for the airbag would have to be very rigid then to allow it to push the vehicles apart which would defeat the purpose of a typical crumple zone, so while such a setup may reduce vehicle structure intrusion, I'm not understanding how it would absorb much energy. It would seem to me the better option would be to make a more rigid safety cage around the passenger compartment to reduce intrusion, but then there would have to be another mechanism to absorb the energy (similar to race cars). However, that added stiffness would come at the expense of added weight and material expense.

I generally try not to discourage creative thinking and thinking "outside the box" but you were asking for thoughts on the topic.

-Rod

[jeffmorris]

I wish that car makers design cars and make believe that people are eggs so that the eggs/people are not broken/hurt/killed in an accident. I watched a film made in 1960 about a group of people crash-testing cars. Because the cars didn't have seat belts or air bags, the dummies usually get killed.

[beepbeepph]

Originally Posted by jeffmorris

I wish that car makers design cars and make believe that people are eggs so that the eggs/people are not broken/hurt/killed in an accident. I watched a film made in 1960 about a group of people crash-testing cars. Because the cars didn't have seat belts or air bags, the dummies usually get killed.

Thanks for sharing this! I think almost all car owners would agree that one of the most important aspects we need to look into our car is safety. As we wouldn't want to risk our lives on the road. However, we should also be responsible for our action so that we won't put our safety at risk.