Air bags in cars have been around for a long time. The patent for the first airbag was issued to John Hetrick in 1953. Originally the air bag was called a “safety cushion”. John Hetrick thought up the air bag as a solution to the problem of braking and collisions following a car accident of his own the year before. Another inventor at the forefront of Air bag technology was Walter Linderer who patented his own design of an air bag in 1953 that he called an “inflatable cushion”.
It wasn’t until a few years later that car manufactured such as Ford and General Motors began to work on their designs for air bags. This later became the standard across the industry. Mercedes Benz began to incorporate air bags into their car designs as late as 1967. The impetus behind the sudden shift in policy was that cars we becoming more and more popular, this in turn caused a greater number of accidents. It was towards the end of the ‘60s that the technology to sense sudden impacts to a car became affordable. Allen Breed invented to crash sensing device that cost less than ten dollars to manufacture. It was this key piece of technology that allowed the advancement of air bags to all car manufacturers. Following Allen Breed’s initial success in car safety, he then went on to invent a great deal of other devices that would enhance driver and passenger safety for many years. One of his other key contributions was the venting airbag. This made the airbag far less rigid, allowing for the more gradual absorption of impact. He then went on to focus on perfecting his crash sensor equipment with great success.
The future of airbags?
Making driving even safer is the goal of many car manufacturers, as they look to advancing the technology across all aspects of the vehicles on the road, airbags are one of their top priorities. Here are some of the new airbag designs that will become the standard in years to come Airbags for the knees. With legs and knees being often neglected when it comes to car accident safety it is only a matter of time before these become a part of every car design. They are already in some car models although they are not legally required yet.
Another advancement is the placement of airbags in the front center of the car. The function of this airbag design is to prevent the driver from moving around the car from side impacts and also to stop the driver and passenger from hitting one another.
Are airbags really that effective?
Since the incorporation of airbags into modern cars, they have been proven to dramatically reduce injuries and deaths from car collisions. The design and location of the airbags has changed over time with some cars having them on the sides of the car as well. However, the general principle has remained the same. It is not uncommon for a newer car to have up to eight airbags protecting all angles that an impact could come from. One of the main benefits of having an airbag in the car is that it is a very effective method of allowing the driver and passengers to undergo a rapid change in velocity without excessive damage. With the use of both airbags and seatbelts you can be much more safe then in a car without these two features.