Now that we have many airbags to protect us inside our cars, Volvo has come up with an airbag for the hapless pedestrian that jumps out in front of our moving car...
"Volvo Car Corp. showed a five-door hatchback this week in Geneva featuring the world's first pedestrian air bag. The Swedish carmaker is counting on such innovations to burnish its safety image and help double sales.
The V40, Volvo's first model designed under owner Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co. of China, has an air bag that ejects from the hood to protect pedestrians from injury. It also has a backswept headlight and panoramic glass roof to give it a sporty look."
Now that we have many airbags to protect us inside our cars, Volvo has come up with an airbag for the hapless pedestrian that jumps out in front of our moving car...
"Volvo Car Corp. showed a five-door hatchback this week in Geneva featuring the world's first pedestrian air bag. The Swedish carmaker is counting on such innovations to burnish its safety image and help double sales.
The V40, Volvo's first model designed under owner Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co. of China, has an air bag that ejects from the hood to protect pedestrians from injury. It also has a backswept headlight and panoramic glass roof to give it a sporty look."
"The five-door seater will have front bumper sensors that will register any physical contact between the car and a pedestrian. If any contact is sensed, a section on the front bumper (closet to the windshield) will be released, deploying an airbag that covers the entire front end."
atomiclightbulb wrote: Since when is a private company's innovation equivalent to "Big Brother"?
Atomic, perhaps you weren't aware of this?
Big Brother, of course being the government and Volvo's pedestrian air bag being one possible approach leading to fewer of these injuries and fatalities.
"In Europe & Japan, new legislation will come
into effect from autumn 2005, which aims to
reduce the number of pedestrian fatalities and
serious injuries .
These pedestrian protection legal requirements are a
new challenge for the automotive industry, deeply
influencing front end styling, package, design & the
complete development process. In the pedestrian
tests for Type Approval, free-flying head, upper &
lower leg impactors will be propelled aginst the
vehicle front end. The vehicle must absorb these
low impact energies by means of a “pedestrianfriendly soft nose”, to ensure acceptable injury
values. The size & shape of the pedestrian
protection test impact areas are largely determined
by the exterior styling theme.
Major changes to current vehicle fronts are
required to satisfy the proposed (and differing)
legal requirements in Europe, Japan and possibly
other countries, as well as to achieve a good Euro
NCAP pedestrian rating. The aim of the legislation
is to further improve pedestrian protection."
Jovian8 wrote: because airbags originally 'pushed' by govt...
Irrelevant.
This is a feature thought up by a private sector company to make the car more appealing to customers. The article specifically says: "The Swedish carmaker is counting on such innovations to burnish its safety image and help double sales."
The U.S. government has had minimum crash safety standards for years. Does this make Honda's Advanced Compatibility Engineering (ACE) Body Structure equivalent "Big Brother"?
Tell me, how is the ACE Body Structure even remotely related to a fictional totalitarian regime that videotapes every citizen in order to crush any type of political dissent or free thought?
I swear this forum gets dumber with each passing year.
Now you are telling me what to think? Sounds pretty totalitarian of you.
"Totalitarian regimes stay in political power through an all-encompassing propaganda campaign, which is disseminated through the state-controlled mass media, a single party that is often marked by political repression, personality cultism, control over the economy, regulation and restriction of speech,"
Nick Graves wrote: Have you also noticed how many Honda & Toyota prototypes now suddenly have slender pillars you can see round?
I think it's the switch to boron steel. Also, it seems like they've 'turned' the A pillar so that from the driver's perspective it appears thinner.
The boron steel is a good one - although it's already difficult for rescue services to cut through cars due to that stuff as it is!
The A-pillar thing was used by ERF trucks back in the mid-70s! They had an SMC-skinned steel-framed cab that was massively strong. And had massive pillars, yet good visibility.
Maybe they've also learned to package those confounded curtain air bags less like a whore's boudoir too.
superchg2 wrote: Now you are telling me what to think? Sounds pretty totalitarian of you.
I can tell you whatever I want. If you can't take the criticism that's not my problem.
(1) You should post links to your articles as a courtesy to the rest of us. I have no idea where you get your information. Also, blatant "copy and paste" without attribution has been frowned upon by moderators in the past.
(2) I see no indication from anything you posted that this airbag system is a direct result of the 2005 Euro NCAP crash standards. I note that new European vehicles like the Honda Civic do not need this kind of airbag to comply with EU safety standards.
Unless you can prove otherwise, Volvo's product is a private sector innovation designed to make the car more appealing to consumers. This is exactly what was written in the materials YOU posted. This is not the result of some government mandate.
(3) I am not a government entity. I can't stop you from posting here or speaking your mind, nor do I wish to do so. However, that doesn't mean you get a free pass from me or anyone else who wants to contest your ideas. I've the same right as you to air my views, and in this case, my opinion is that you really have no idea what "Big Brother" really means.
Talk to anyone from the former USSR or Eastern Europe. They'll tell you about the government surveillance, the neighbors you couldn't trust, the government propaganda. To suggest that safety standards in consumer products is equivalent to "Big Brother" is ridiculous.
Totalitarian tactics exist only to perpetuate the power of a dictator or oligarchy. Product safety standards exist to ensure that the common citizen doesn't unwittingly purchase a product that could kill them needlessly.
on the topic of pedestrian safety, I found this quite interesting.
The marker light – targeted illumination helps to gain time.
Today, it is technically possible to identify the position of pedestrians very accurately. Once this position is known, a headlight can focus on that area and show directly where a potentially endangered pedestrian is. BMW calls this system Dynamic Light Spot. The major difference compared to other marker light assistants is that the BMW system projects a strip of light onto the road to direct the attention of the driver to the hazard. The light automatically draws the attention of the driver to the possible collision object and thus triggers an intuitive and fast reaction.
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