Hyundai Motor Group develops a new centre-side airbag

After introducing an ingenious solution for last-mile connectivity issues, Hyundai has come up with yet another form of an airbag to enhance the safety quotient of its future products.

Hyundai Motor Group seems to be on a roll when it comes to enhancing the safety quotient of its future cars using breakthrough technology. Not too long ago, the Korean manufacturer had developed a multi-collision airbag system, which ensures safety in the case of secondary collisions (that follow after a primary impact). Now, it has introduced a new centre-side airbag. As the name suggests, the airbag is deployed at the centre (between the driver & front passenger) to provide side impact protection (in case there is no front passenger) to the driver or to avoid head injuries (in case a front passenger is present) to either front occupant by avoiding a collision between the two.

Fitted inside the driver's seat, Hyundai claims the centre-side airbag is expected to reduce the rate of head injuries caused by inter-passenger collision by up to 80 per cent. Further, the new centre-side airbag also features Hyundai's new patented technology, which allows it to be more compact and lightweight than a conventional airbag of the same size.

This has been achieved by reworking the design of a crucial component inside the airbag called the 'tether'. The tether is basically a strap-like device with anchors on either end, which helps the airbag maintain its form during inflation and also helps in withstanding the passenger's weight. The simplification of the tether's design & the resulting weight reduction has made the centre-side airbag lighter by about 500gm. The smaller size will also allow designers to be more flexible with its application in Hyundai's future vehicles.

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