After developing the panoramic sunroof airbag and multi-collision airbag system, Hyundai Motor Group has now come up with a center side airbag, which is aimed to prevent the front row passengers from colliding into each other.
As we can see in the picture, this new airbag expands into the center console, the space between the driver and passenger seats to prevent head injuries. If the front passenger seat is unoccupied, the airbag will protect the driver from a side collision coming from the other side. While it appears as if the airbag emerges from the center console, it is actually installed inside the driver’s seat and will deploy when an impact is sensed.
This new safety technology will be rolled out in the upcoming Hyundai and Kia vehicles. Hyundai expects the new center side airbag to diminish head injuries caused by passengers colliding into each other by 80 percent. According to the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association statistics, the rate of secondary damage caused by these kinds of collisions or from hitting interior materials is about 45 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 500 g 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 also said that the Group has applied newly patented technology to maintain reliability but reduce the weight and size of the airbag. The upcoming Euro NCAP is expected to include side impact into its consideration beginning in 2020 and Hyundai expects their new airbag to work favorably in such evaluation.
Recommended for you
Leave a Reply
Note: Comments that are unrelated to the post above get automatically filtered into the trash bin.
