The changing face of airbag technology

The Australian Accident Repair Network (AARN) is reporting that new airbag technology being tested by Mercedes could potentially change the face of in-car safety systems.

Driver and passenger airbags have become commonplace in Australian cars and have been further developed to include curtain, side, knee and seatbelt airbags as well. According to AARN, Mercedes is now experimenting with airbags that deploy from underneath the car and help stop a vehicle before it crashes. These airbags are part of the overall active safety system and deploy when sensors determine that impact is inevitable.

The bags employ a friction coating that helps slow the car down and can double the stopping power of the vehicle. They also lift the vehicle chassis up to eight centimetres, which counters the car’s dipping motion during hard braking, improves bumper-to-bumper contact and helps prevent passengers from sliding under seatbelts during a collision.

What gives this kind of airbag potential as a future technology is that it uses existing vehicle safety systems. Although Mercedes has been working on this technology for several years, it isn’t available on any production models yet and may not be seen on the road for another few years.

With the current evolution of airbags and their pervasiveness within the automotive world, it wouldn’t be a stretch to imagine future cars using airbags to not only protect passengers, but to actually stop cars as well.