External Airbags Could Soon Be Here To Soften The Blow For Pedestrians

Mercedes has filed a patent for an external airbag which aims to protect pedestrians should the worst happen
External Airbags Could Soon Be Here To Soften The Blow For Pedestrians

From autonomous emergency braking to simple dashboard warnings, manufacturers have put a lot of effort into preventing accidents involving pedestrians over the last few years. But since it’s impossible to avoid every potential contact, it seems some firms want to look at measures to reduce injuries should the worst happen.

A few years ago Volvo was looking at the idea of an external airbag, and now it seems Mercedes is doing the same. In a patent first filed to the US Patent Office in 2015 and published this month, the company is proposing a system which would have airbags installed in the A-pillars.

They’d work together with a bonnet deployment system, and be discretely hidden under panels until the crucial moment. Each airbag would inflate “across a region of a windscreen pillar and a region of the windscreen adjacent to this,” considerably softening the impact for the unfortunate pedestrian.

External airbags could go further than protecting pedestrians, too. Last year we learned that ZF TRW was working on a side-mounted external airbag intended to reduce the impact forces of side-on crashes by anything up to 30 per cent.

Comments

Anonymous

So if you hit something or someone you have to change body panels? A lot of times pedestrians and mostly people who do not drive act stupid. Once my mom was going out of a parking spot, she put it in reverse (reverse lights were on), then she changed a radio station while in gear her and slowly started backing up. From somewhere a woman showed up and almost got hit, my mom reacted fast enough. I do not understand, how could she not see that the car was running, with reverse lights on and still go like a meter from the rear end in a blind spot. Surely she afterward started arguing with my mom, saying she will call the police and such.

08/09/2017 - 17:16 |
1 | 1
Anonymous

i dont give a SHlT , im here just to read MUSTANG jokes

08/09/2017 - 18:53 |
1 | 1
Gites

Who actually walks anywhere
If you get hit by a car then deal with it
Your ruining my fun

08/09/2017 - 19:25 |
0 | 0
Frank Ma

Need to get that for the mustangs

08/09/2017 - 19:29 |
2 | 1
Lucas Tekkan

Is there any possible chance of pop-up headlights return ?

08/09/2017 - 22:45 |
0 | 0
Jared G.

And que the mustang hitting crowd jokes

08/10/2017 - 02:55 |
0 | 0
H5SKB4RU (Returned to CT)

I hope the post is a joke, otherwise cars of the future are f** up

08/11/2017 - 10:56 |
0 | 0
InjunS2K

Insert Mustang crowd joke for maximum lolz

08/17/2017 - 19:46 |
1 | 0
Donkey Kong (Donk Squad) (cavalier squad)

plz put these in mustangs

08/18/2017 - 03:48 |
0 | 0

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