Passenger safety is a key priority among motor vehicle manufacturers. The idea is to create a mobile safety net for all occupants of the car while maintaining comfort.
However, a number of manufacturers realised that the safety of car occupants is often pegged to that of other road users including pedestrians.
As such, car makers introduced the pedestrian airbag to shield road users on foot in the event that they get hit by the front of the car. Kenyans.co.ke did a background check and established how the airbag works:
The modification was first introduced by Swedish Automobile company, Volvo in 2012 for their latest station wagon model at the time, the Volvo V40.
Renowned car expert Jim Gill explained that the airbag was meant to provide safety for pedestrians by deploying the airbag at the intersection between the bonnet and the windscreen.
"The airbag has two purposes: to lift the bonnet to create additional space between it and the hard components on the engine bay such as the engine itself.
"It also cushions the area around the windshield wipers and the lower part of the A-pillar, the front part of the car, "Gill demonstrated during a review.
He explained that the system works through sensors which are fitted onto the car bumper that are specifically designed to perform the role.
"These are advance sensors around the bumper edge which are developed to recognise impact with a human-like leg form," the car expert pointed out.
Gill confirmed that the system had undergone testing and computer-aided engineering to verify its performance on all probable kinds of impact and in all conditions.
In addition, the cars are fitted with an automatic braking system. However, the expert revealed the pedestrian airbag had one key delimitation - it operates at speeds between 20 and 50 kilometres per hour.
The technology was adopted by other manufacturers and was tested in the 2016 Discovery Sport. Land Rover integrated the airbag with the bonnet panel and on the bumper engineers fitted pressure tube sensors.
Furthermore, the deployment time was reduced to 60 milliseconds and the effect on the driver's clear vision during deployment was reduced.
