Hyundai Motor Company has debuted its side-impact airbag which deploys in the centre of a vehicle between front occupants.
The side centre airbag is designed to reduce trauma to occupants in vehicle crashes by limiting their ability to collide with each other and is the result of new crash testing protocols coming in 2020.
During a crash scenario occupants often impact with each other in a recoil action having bounced off the side curtain airbags in a side-impact collision.
Deploying from inside the driver’s seat once the impact is detected by the car’s crash sensors, the centre side airbag expands into the space between driver and passenger seats to prevent head injuries of passengers in the front row. If there is no one in the front passenger seat, the airbag insulates the driver from a side-impact crash from the opposite side.
The side-centre airbag is likely to also be used as a restraint device, meaning it will holds its form upon impact with the occupant, unlike regular airbags designed to deflate on impact to disperse energy.
Hyundai says the airbag can “maintain its form and withstand the passenger’s weight” using an internal “tether” component as part of its now 500g lighter airbag design, compared with competing airbag designs. The smaller airbag design also means added flexibility in future seat design.
From next year Euro NCAP is expected to include side impact testing into its assessment, with Hyundai saying the side centre airbag is “expected to work favourably in such evaluation”.
Australasian New Car Assessment Program chief executive James Goodwin tells AutoTalk the side-impact and the side-centre airbag specifically will be part of a significant step-up in vehicle safety.
“From next year, far-side occupant protection is being introduced as part of ANCAP assessments,” he says.
“This will look at the level of protection a vehicle offers to front-seat occupants on the non-struck side of the vehicle – how to minimise the effects of occupant-to-occupant interaction,” Goodwin explains.
Regarding the new airbag design, Goodwin says carmakers are expected to make a step-up in safety performance.
“This is a test we know brands can provide in-house data on and we want to see them continuing to innovate,” he says.
“It’s those remaining elements of a crash that are the areas of occupant injury we’re trying to eliminate now in order to make them survivable,” Goodwin says.
Far-side occupant protection will be assessed to see how vehicles protect the front passengers in a side impact. Two tests will be used to measure far-side occupant protection, including one pole test at 32km/h at a 70-degree angle, and a second test of a mobile barrier travelling at 60km/h at the point of impact at the B-pillar.
“With the movement of an occupant on the opposite side, currently protection is primarily designed for the struck side of the car, but people are killing or injuring each other inside the car by hitting each other,” Goodwin highlights.
Hyundai Motor Group’s research engineer Hyock In Kwon for the company’s internal vehicle safety department, the Crash Safety System Engineering Design Team, says “The development of centre side airbag goes beyond adding an additional airbag.”
“We will continue striving to further improve passenger safety by being ready for all kinds of accidents,” In Kwon adds.
Hyundai Australia tells AutoTalk the side-centre airbag’s “timing and model introduction for Australia is still to be confirmed”.
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