External side airbags, the latest step in preventing side impacts

ZF was responsible for developing these new external side airbags. Although they would increase the price of the models, they would also increase safety in the event of side impacts.

ZF has developed new external side airbags. The manufacturer is a parts supplier in the automotive sector, known for its eight-speed automatic gearboxes fitted to many modern cars.

But the manufacturer, ZF, does much more than transmissions and other components for production cars. ZF is also developing possible safety components for the future. Today it is the turn of this external side airbag system.

These ZF external side airbags would, hypothetically, inflate just before a vehicle is about to receive an impact. The manufacturer has stated that this is the “first external side airbag system deployed before a collision in any car in the world”.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=059pp2YHaeY

ZF achieved something very similar in 2016. But special mention must also be made of the airbag with a hood for pedestrians that it was experimenting with Land Rover.

External side airbags, a new safety extra?

Even so, the ZF engineers seem to believe they have made some progress. In the new concept, the airbag is connected to the network of sensors that vehicles currently fit so that it can deploy at exactly the right moment, but not at the wrong one, which would cause far more than an inconvenience.

Apparently, this new version of the side airbag system takes “approximately 150 milliseconds to decide to deploy the airbag and inflate it”.

ZF says that “the vehicle’s sensors must identify a potential impact quickly and accurately. This is achievable with connected cameras, radar and lidar”.

“The algorithms within the system’s software decide whether a collision is unavoidable and whether deploying the airbag is possible and beneficial. If all these decisions are affirmative, the system fires the inflators to fill the airbag. The airbag has a capacity of between 280 and 400 litres depending on the vehicle, and then expands upward from the sill to form an additional ‘crumple’ zone in the door area between the A-pillar and the C-pillar”.

Everything points to this new side airbag system potentially raising the purchase and repair price of a vehicle, but if it can save a hospital stay, it would be worth it. For now there are no plans to integrate this new safety system into production vehicles, but it should be noted that ZF is a “historically successful company, and if it is betting on this idea, there is a chance it may reach the market in some form”.