Airbags are for one-time use and if there’s a multiple collision, the airbags are ineffective. Hyundai has showcased world’s first multi-collision airbags
Hyundai has revealed world’s first airbag that will work during multi-collision. It significantly improves the safety over the regular single-use airbags that are widely used in the vehicles at present. The multi-collision airbags are extremely useful in high speed accidents where the vehicle can take several blows. In most of the accidents, after the primary impact, vehicles hit nearby objects like trees, house, electrical poles and even other vehicles.
It is is very common in high-speed accidents and three out of ten accidents face this situation. The multi-collision airbags work in a very complicated way. They first detect the initial collision to deploy the airbags. The deployment of the airbags are extremely quick and is faster than the deployment of the regular airbags.
The airbag system then recalibrates the collision intensity for the redeployment and after the second collision, the airbags deploy again to save the occupants from any injuries. According to the National Highway Safety Administration, USA, about 30 percent of 56,000 accidents, vehicles have gone through multiple collisions between 2000 to 2012 in North America.
The development of the airbags are still in process it will take some time till they appear in the production vehicles. Such airbags will significantly bring down the fatality rate that occurs due to the accidents but the price of the airbags will rise up by a great deal. Hyundai Motor Group has not given a timeline on the development of the multi-collision airbags or how expensive they will be.
However, we can expect them to be in the production vehicles in the coming future. Hyundai is currently analysing the results from their tests and it will be used to make the performance of such airbags better in the future. Both Hyundai and Kia vehicles will get such airbags in the future in the production cars.
With the improvement of the roads and the development of modern cars, the average speed of vehicles has increased multiple folds in recent past years. While the current set of equipment save a lot of lives, we do need technology that is much more advanced than the current safety net available in the production cars.