at what speed do the airbags deploy

I'd imagine at a collision speed somewhere more than 20mph and less than 70-80mph. I've been in cars with collisions at both speeds... in the former the airbags stayed put (BMW), and in the latter (Peugeot) they punched me very hard in the face (which hurts a lot, by the way).

No idea what the required impact speed is for Ferrari.

All the best,
Andrew.

 

IIRC......airbag deployment and activation is a function of the pre-programmed deacceleration parameters that are measured in a collision.........not road speed.

 

Yup.

Decelleration/time.

 

well most likely over 25 mpr I would think never happened to me.

 

What if you're going backwards when you come to a stop? The headrest keeps your head from getting thrown around.

Does ABS work in reverse?

 

Yes, ABS works in reverse gear. I noticed that in my MINI reversing out the driveway in the snow.

As to headrests, it's amazing how supportive they are in a rear-end accident (personal experience here) providing you've set them to the correct height. Most people have them too low which is why they suffer whiplash when they're rear-ended. I got rear-ended quite heavily a few years ago and suffered absolutely no injuries.

I kept getting calls from 'ambulance-chasing' personal injury lawyers who kept asking me over the phone: "Are you sure you weren't injured?! Whiplash is rather nasty, you know..."

I told them it sounded as if they were encouraging me to fabricate an injury for the sake of a compensation claim and that soon stopped the calls.

All the best,
Andrew.

 

You don't have to be moving, a friend was hit while sitting at a light and his went off.

 

Airbag deployment specs have changed over the years. Modern vehicles have "smart" airbags which -- I'm told -- deploy only under the right conditions (i.e., right sensors are 'tripped'). Fortunately I have no personal experience with airbag deployment...

Not sure what car you're asking about, but I would check the manufacturer's website or OM for details.

 

Every car company has its own algorythm that determines if the airbags should deploy. The function usually depends on deceleration rate.
(I worked for a company that made the Onstar system and we had to test the ability to detect an airbag event. I have set off the detector hundreds of times by rapping the sensor sharply on the top of a table.)

 

I have only Momo. No air bags in any of my cars. Sit as far back as I can w/ my wrists at 3 & 9 not over the top as w/ SCCA recommendation. Why does it matter at what speed?

 

Was that in Scotland or back here in the States?

I didn't think they were "allowed" to do that in the UK, but admit I'm *way* out of touch.

Cheers,
Ian

 

The only time I've ever so much as scratched a car was when I totalled my Kia Spectra
a number of years ago - slammed into the back of a stalled panel truck - I was going about
60 MPH.

It still plays back like a slow-mo movie in my head - the airbag exploding out the
steering wheel - and expanding at exactly the rate that I was moving forward!
I watched as the GPS punched right through the windshield as if it were made of
cellophane - and just as I was recoiling back out of the airbag I can see it collapsing,
and I was back in the seat like before it all started. All of this took a fraction of
a second and I recall the entire thing.

Didn't have a scratch on me - got out of the car and directed traffic until police
arrived. And the GPS still worked!!

Jedi

 

It was in England, in Berkshire. I don't think they're "allowed" to do it either but they did anyway.

All the best,
Andrew.

 

In a head on collision--You will wish you had those stinkin airbags

 

The crash de-acceleration profiles for individual production cars are considered to be some of the most valuable intellectual property at Key Safety Systems and TRW Automotive. There are many conditions (system readiness, mechanical safing sensor triggered, valid crash de-acceleration profile met) which must be satisfied to trigger air bag deployment.

The VP of Engineering at Breed Technologies (now Key Safety Systems) would resolve engineering methodology arguments by asking the team and suppliers, "what would you do if your spouse and children were in the car?" A really good guy.....for what its worth, he drove a Chevrolet Suburban.

 

Its a calibrated number for each vehicle based on engineering study and validation testing. The parameter is reported as Delta V/Delta T, or the change in velocity over a prescribed change in time during a crash event. When that threshold value is achieved, then a deployment process begins to cushion the occupant and manage the energy to minimize the primary and secondary collisions of occupant to vehicle (primary), and internal organs to skeletal elements (secondary). The minimum speeds typically observed in low speed deployments can be as low as the high 20 MPHs.

 

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