By now just about everyone who drives in north America and Europe drives a car or truck that has a safety airbag positioned at least in the steering wheel. However; on many newer cars and you may  the owner of one, safety airbags are positioned in other strategic locations around the interior of the vehicle.

Fewer Deaths and Injuries In Spite of More Crashes

Front & back side panels and even in the ceilings. What this and other types of similar automotive safety technologies have accomplished, is making vehicles incredibly safer to drive. In fact the figures speak for themselves. Fact: In spite of total crash figures steadily rising each decade, serious injuries and deaths have continued to decline.

Automotive Airbag Technology Yesterday Today & Tom arrow

So what took automakers so long to install the first air bags and then what took them so long to get them into the side panels and roofs of automobiles. Also what about other types of airbags that can be used in other vehicles? Motorcycles for instance? These are good legitimate questions and by the way, a motorcycle airbag suit is currently in development and prototypes that encase a person in a soft bubble on impact have been and still are undergoing testing.

Incredible Technology That Took Years To Develop

The idea for automotive safety airbags came about years before they were finally developed and installed and the reason is simple. That is that the incredible technology was years in the making. You see, an airbag deployment is in reality a controlled explosion that happens just inches from a persons head during a vehicle accident.

All In the Time It Takes You To Snap Your Fingers

The holy grail of airbag development, was devising a way to launch the level of energy required to inflate an airbag in (50 one-thousandths of a second) or roughly 'one quarter of a hummingbirds wing beat'. Then almost just as quickly, dissipate that energy so it doesn't cause an injury. You see in the time it takes you to snap your finger the crash has to be detected, the message sent to the bag, the bag deploy, a body hit it & then the bag deflate. An absolutely 'incredible' feat of engineering.

An Amazing 'Zero' Manufacturing Failure Rate

Now if that isn't amazing enough consider this. With 'hundreds of millions' of automotive airbags being manufactured each year there can be only a (zero failure rate). All must work and not one can not work! Think about that for a moment. Try to imagine any consumer item that you have dealt with in your life that maintains a 0.000000 failure rate. It's truly amazing and most people simply take them for granted.

Whats coming At You In Tomorrows Automotive Airbags

So now that you can hop in a car that has you completely protected on your front & top and both sides by air bags, whats the next development in the works? Perhaps some super air bag or series of air bags that completely engulf and fill all space of the interior of a vehicle upon impact? Sound incredible? Well considering what they have accomplished up to now it really isn't.