External Airbags Are On The Way To Make Crashes A Little Less Unpleasant

Airbags have always been about protecting squishy human bodies from all the nasty hard bits of your car’s interior during a smash. But at their most basic level, they aim to cushion impacts and absorb energy, so why not stick a few on the outside? Volvo did it with the V40 (pictured), but that was all about protecting pedestrians. What automotive component companies ZF and TRW (now one firm thanks to a recent merger) are working on, however, is a system that’s all about softening the blow from another car.

Again, it’s an externally mounted airbag, which is about twice the size of a regular curtain airbag and is stored just under the doors. It inflates just before a side impact, and has been shown to reduce the force exerted in such a crash by as much as 30 per cent. Things have come a long way since the humble driver airbag…