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This Chevy Camaro put on quite a drifting demonstration at a Michigan dragstrip last weekend. Right up until its side air bags decided they'd had one too many donuts and spontaneously deployed, slightly burning a passenger. UPDATE More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5829996&view=rss&microfeed=true After arm-twisting by U.S. auto safety regulators, Ford will expand a recall of F-150 and Lincoln Mark LT trucks to 1.2 million vehicles from 2004-2006 model years, due to air bags that could deploy without warning. More »
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A Massachusetts repairman choked on raisins while driving, blacking out behind the wheel of his truck which hit three other vehicles before an embankment. That collision triggered the air bags, knocking the raisins loose. Everybody's OK, minus some pride. More »
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The 2012 Focus debuts Ford's next-generation airbag, designed with an internal tether which shapes the bag to reduce pressure and injuries to the ribs and abdomen. It also makes the airbag look like an old lady's bottom. More »
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There have been some images circulating on the seedier, more Russian side of the Internet showing a hapless Mercedes driver with his forearm horribly branded by a Mercedes logo from an airbag deployment. Trouble is it's totally bullshit. More »
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You know what rednecks hate more than dental hygiene and pluralism? Fancy porcelain toilets. And airbags. And the Dodge Dynasty. Really, anything that smacks of your modern sybaritic life. More »
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That's it, the terrorists have won. The Transportation Security Administration just formalized its ban on traveling with automotive airbags as either carry-on or checked luggage, citing the explosive charges packed within them. More »
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Let's cover a few basics. First, we've seen this sort of thing before, but it's never been quite this funny. Second, isn't a room with a ceiling a bad idea? And third, why do these people always have southern accents? More »
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We'll be on hand later today when Ford will unveil a new safety technology — airbags in rear seat belts. We hope they'll work better than Chrysler's discontinued neck seatbelts. More »
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The history of automotive safety engineering is a reflection of society. As society has changed, evolved, advanced and reassessed its values, so too were those values foisted, painfully, upon automotive engineers. More »
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Cars are a part of American culture. We grow up in them, live in them, love them, but like the culture they reflect, cars change over time. Here's ten things you experienced your kids probably won't. More »
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Ever wonder what it's like to get nailed in the privates with a skateboard propelled by an exploding airbag? Wonder no more as this idiot has done it on video. Point and laugh, and hopefully learn. More »
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Apparently we're not the only ones who look at a car like the Toyota iQ and wonder what could happen to back-seat passengers in a rear-end collision: Toyota today announced the development of a rear-window curtain shield airbag. Not surprisingly, Toyota also announced that the first application for its new 'bag will be in the iQ sub-sub-compact, which places its rear passengers' heads basically against the hatch glass. Much like a side curtain airbag, the rear curtain airbag will drop from the vehicle headliner and work with the headrests to help prevent injuries. Next up: The fully inflatable headliner for rollovers and seat back frontal airbags for rear-seat passengers. You just watch. Full release after the jump More »
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BMW announced today that it was recalling approximately 200,000 vehicles because a sensor issue might stop the front passenger airbag from deploying. The issue comes from small cracks that could develop within a seat detection mat, causing the airbag to be deactivated. Affected are MY 2006 3-series and MY 2004-2006 5-series cars and MY 2004-2006 X3 SUVs. Thankfully, no one has reported being hurt because of potential problem, and it doesn't seem to affect other airbags. We guess It's a good thing that BMW drivers are so unlikely to crash... [MSNBC] More »
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We're well aware of the whole cyclists-wanting-hood-airbags debacle, but the Toyota Gosei system is just ridiculous. Just look at it — it looks like something that would keep the Titanic afloat. More »
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The Dutch Cycling Federation in the Netherlands is boldly approaching car manufacturers and requesting hood-mounted external airbags on all vehicles. It's either that or they're going to have to stop running into cyclists (which will never happen). We're not going to get into the "roads are for cars" debate because we're sure the commenters will touch on that, but it's not a terribly horrible demand by the cyclists (Actually, it IS a terribly horrible demand by the cyclists and Travis regrets even remotely suggesting as such. Furthermore, we call on the Dutch government to immediately brand as terrorists any organization that would ever approach an automaker to request such a silly thing. Or maybe revoke funding for their favorite bike path. Something punitive, we don't really care what. -Ed.). The group says that 60 lives could be saved and 1,500 serious injuries could be prevented annually in the Netherlands alone with hood-mounted air bags. Luckily for those peddlers, the technology is already available. More »
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As part of the ongoing Tesla Roadster safety certification, the NHSTA is giving the company an important air bag exemption. The waiver was given because the company was losing money and would "have to cancel its pending development of an electric-powered sedan, and would ultimately have to terminate its operations." Of course, the government would like to encourage the development of alternative fuel/electric vehicles and looking the other way on this is something they've deemed reasonable. More »
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Small cars—wave of the future or grim throwback to the gaslines of the 1970s, just with cooler exteriors and cupholders? Plenty of lip service was paid to the treehugger obsessions of Generation fortwo at the Detroit Auto Show's Michelin Design Challenge. The brief? Create designs that are rinkydink, don't chug fuel, and won't kill anybody. Legions of dewy young designers (and presumably a few not so dewy ones who have always burned to create a teensy set of wheels) rose to the challenge and submitted to review over two days at Art Center College of Design. A few aspirants were perhaps excessively inspired by Bibendum's spongy girth and—focusing on the always tricky prospect of preventing people from being mangled in small-vehicle collisions with much larger vehicles—added airbags to the outside of their concepts. Heck, if it worked for Russian space capsules hurtling to hard landings, why not micromobiles? Everything returns to normal in 2009, when the shrunk stuff goes away, the airbags go back inside, and patriotism is restored by the theme "Brave and Bold: America's Next Iconic Vehicle." Eff-yeah!!! More »
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We'll just call it Luddite Week. Following Monday's QOTD regarding the fattening of modern cars, and then yesterday's which was concerned with utterly useless features, comes today's: Airbags, yay or nay? On the one hand, obviously, the intent behind airbags is to save your life. That's a good thing. But the idea of a gas-filled shotgun shell pointed at my chest at all times frankly makes me a bit queezy. Do they save lives? Yes, sure, some. But exactly how many is difficult to calculate. One study puts the number at about 400 lives per year. However, would airbags save a single life if seat belts were worn at all times? Difficult to say. And then of course we have the added cost and weight and complexity that half a dozen bags per car imbue. Is it all worthwhile? More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=301275&view=rss&microfeed=true As kids we did similar things to this with steel trash cans and M-80's. Difference was we always faced the steel bottom of the can between us and whatever explosive device we had somehow obtained and put under the can. Spare airbags are evidently the new fireworks. Despite the danger pictograms on dashboards and vast information floating around the interwebs and television, these guys failed to remember that airbags can in fact be dangerous. Slow-mo replays at the end of the clip are absolutely comical. Don't try this at or away from home, kids. – Mike Bumbeck More »
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Toyota's bringing ScionBack (yeah!) — 30,000 Scion tCs to be specific, produced from March 2004 to early March 2006 — over a problem involving side airbags randomly deciding to deploy (under certain conditions, anyway). According to the NHTSA alert bulletin: More »
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