Hyundai Mobis Touts Center Airbag System

Hyundai Mobis Co. says it has developed an airbag that can prevent vehicle occupants from colliding with each other and adjoining seats during a lateral collision. The South Korean company claims the system can reduce head injuries in such accidents by as much as 80%.

Other suppliers have developed similar airbags, which deploy from the center of the cockpit. Such airbags are designed to shield occupants seated on one side of the vehicle from a crash impact on the opposite side.

Current center airbag systems are designed to work only if there are two people seated in the same row. Hyundai Mobis says it also is working on an integrated system that could cushion a lone driver from being thrown against the passenger side of the vehicle during a collision.

When a large car collides into the driver’s side of a vehicle at a speed of 30 mph, the head injury criterion (HIC) for the passenger can be two to three times that of the driver in vehicles with side airbag systems, according to Hyundai Mobis. The company says that adding a center airbag can reduce this by as much as 80% to about half the rate of the driver’s HIC.

Hyundai Mobis notes that the European automotive safety evaluation program, which already recommends the use of dual-occupant center airbags, also is evaluating the use of driver-only center airbags for testing in 2020. The company didn’t say when it expected to commercialize either of its systems.