General Motors Co. will introduce an all-new air bag, mounted to the right side of the driver's seat to help keep the driver and the front passenger safer during severe side collisions, reported The Detroit News.
The air bag will debut on the 2013 Chevrolet Traverse, GMC Acadia and Buick Enclave, the automaker said Thursday. GM won't say what other vehicles will get this new air bag in the future, but it's easy to speculate that a lot of them will. Safety sells and sells well.
No one should be surprised that this air bag was created. Side impacts are one of the biggest challenges facing safety engineers.
Unlike the front and rear of a vehicle, which have crumple zones, breakaway points and fascinating design work that pushes the energy of an accident around the cabin, the side offers only a few inches of metal and glass between people and the vehicle hitting them.
Every carmaker offers at least the minimum of protection with air bags, and it's quickly becoming standard for cars to come with at least six air bags throughout a cabin.
Some offer eight, 10 or even 12 air bags. But GM's approach is unique in the industry. The carmaker worked with supplier Takata Corp. for three years to develop the air bag known as the front center air bag.
It's attached to the driver's seat and inflates during any side impact or rollover, said Scott Thomas, a senior staff engineer at GM.
The idea was to find a way to help people caught in far-side impacts; in the case of a driver, this would mean the vehicle was struck on the passenger side. Typically, in a far-side impact, a body is violently thrown toward the impact side, toward the center of the vehicle.
In all of the other directions, many cars offer some sort of air bag protection. There are front, side curtain, side and even knee air bags in many cars. Ford Motor Co. recently deployed air bags on seat belts to help distribute force better during a collision.
"This is revolutionary technology," Thomas said. "We didn't develop it because of regulations, but because this will benefit GM customers."
Indeed. GM saw the need for the bag because 11 percent of traffic deaths last year resulted from far-side impacts. U.S. traffic deaths dropped 3.2 percent in 2010 to 32,788 fatalities, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration; they fell, in part, because of all of the safety devices carmakers include in vehicles. There's still room for more.
So adding another air bag is not just a good idea, it's one that could very well save lives.
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