Multiple-collision airbag system, an invention of Hyundai that will soon arrive in its vehicles

When Mercedes-Benz finished developing it nearly ten years after the airbag, its introduction in the S-Class in the early 80s was a great revolution for the automotive industry, something that all manufacturers would end up adopting, even though other brands such as Audi focused on their own safety system, the known as Procon-Ten. Now, almost 40 years after its arrival in the industry, the airbag may be about to evolve, but this time thanks to Hyundai.

The benefits of using the airbag as a supplementary safety measure to the seatbelt are obvious to everyone, but when a vehicle suffers a multiple collision, that is, when after the first impact collisions occur with other objects such as trees, poles or even other vehicles, the effectiveness of the airbag becomes null if the system is not able to detect that it is necessary after the first impact. You might think this is an uncommon type of accident, but nothing could be further from the truth, since this type of accident occurs in 3 out of every 10 accidents.

In fact, if we focus on the data taken from the NHTSA, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration of the United States, of the approximately 56,000 accidents that occurred in North America between 2000 and 2012, 30% of them were multiple collisions. This percentage includes accidents where a car crossed the centre line, sudden stops at motorway toll booths, collisions against motorway crash barriers, and side-slip collisions with trees and electricity poles.

In the search for a broader and more effective use of the airbag, Hyundai enters the scene, as the Korean company is developing the first multiple-collision airbag system. This new type of airbag is characterised by having a system capable of calibrating the state of the vehicle and its occupants, thus effectively deploying the airbags in the event of a second impact. To do this, it is able to detect an unusual position of the occupants after the first collision, and it deploys more quickly, thus offering greater safety.

For the time being this multiple-collision airbag system is under development, but the intention of Hyundai is for its installation in its new vehicles, and in those of Kia, to begin sooner rather than later.