Rollover Airbags

[nissangirl74]

It's coming, whether we like it or not.

http://www.thecarconnection.com/marty-b ... d+Blogs%29

Do you think this should be a requirement or an option? Do you think the majority of people would be willing to pay more for their vehicle, just for safety's sake?

Your thoughts.

[s0m3th1ngAZ]

Oh yay...yet another instance of the smart paying for the stupid.

[nissangirl74]

Such is life.

[ADDirishboy]

Wonderful. ANOTHER mother f*** airbag that could go off spontaneously while I'm cutting someone out of their car after a wreck. That's exactly what I need.

[mechanicalmoron]

Hmm.

I was under the impression safe cars are safe with 1 airbag per person, and unsafe cars are still unsafe with 32 little air bags stuffed into every possible panel or surface around each person.

[TurboSauce]

My opinion, I have no problem as long as it's not;
1)Federally Mandated for all vehicles on the road, where by forcing you to get rid of your older cars and only drive/ use new ones with such an airbag only.
2)interfering in anyway with older vehicles. and we are still allowed to drive them.

Because God knows my first few cars, if not all, will be 2006 year models and under..

[TurboSauce]

Plus, No amount of safety features can make a driver any safer.
you could put them in a bubble of air garunteed to absorb all possible disturbances and keep them safe.
doesn't mean they wont crash.

[MinisterofDOOM]

If you're going to mandate 50,000 airbags per car, you can't keep being stringent with CAFE. And if you're going to be stringent with CAFE, you can't keep adding mandatory weight and complexity to otherwise efficient cars. The practical problem (ignoring the ethical ones) with the feds mandating crap left and right on our automobiles is that half of their mandates are counter to each other. You end up like the old man taking 17 pills, half of which are solely there to counter side-effects of another pill.

Also, when nothing is OPTIONAL anymore, "cheap" cars don't come easy. You end up with Nissan offering Versas without radios because they can't offer them without airbags that may or may not be desired or even beneficial.

All these mandates create more problems in new areas than the actually solved.

And all this ignores the fact that people who refuse to use seatbelts invite their own fates anyway, and trying to coddle them helps no one at all.

I hate that TCS is mandated.
I hate that TPMS is mandated.
I hate that airbags are mandated.

[frapjap]

Waste of time and only serves to add one more thing that can total your car more quickly in the event of an accident. Also, I despise the "invincibility/illusion of safety" that this will supply. "Oh, I don't have to be as careful driving my automobile, texting, shaving, drinking coffee because when I do crash, I'll have 10 airbags to save my a**.

Note that I've never been in a crash where an air bag has gone off, either.
And that two of my cars have no air bags.

[IBCoupe]

Wouldn't it be easier to outlaw stupid-big SUVs that are constantly getting in my way, obstructing my view of the traffic ahead, and causing me to hulk out and flip them over?

This seems a roundabout way of solving the problem.

[frapjap]

Wouldn't it be easier to outlaw stupid-big SUVs that are constantly getting in my way, obstructing my view of the traffic ahead, and causing me to hulk out and flip them over?

This seems a roundabout way of solving the problem.

Sounds entirely reasonable to me.

"You could outlaw religion and in most cities sex crimes would disappear in a couple of generations. But we don't have time for rational solutions."

[AppleBonker]

Meh, mandating more airbags will just increase the odds of me never purchasing a post year 2005 car again...

[MinisterofDOOM]

Wouldn't it be easier to outlaw stupid-big SUVs that are constantly getting in my way, obstructing my view of the traffic ahead, and causing me to hulk out and flip them over?

This seems a roundabout way of solving the problem.

Why are we talking about outlawing ANYTHING?!

If I want to buy a QX56, I should be able to buy a damn QX56. If that offends you, move to China. They've got lots of stupid laws there.

[IBCoupe]

Because your QX56 is stupid big. And I'm lightheartedly suggesting that we should ban stupid big personal vehicles.

Chill. The fact that I suggested the reason SUVs rollover is because I, a scrawny Jew, tend to hulk out should have been the first indicator that I wasn't being totally serious.

[Firewind]

So if I understand this correctly, we're installing more air bags for roll overs when people do not wear seat belts? This feels like an excuse to encourage people not to wear their seat belts. In fact that's exactly what it would become.

The other solution is making shatter proof glass? When did that EVER become a good idea? Door jammed but you can't break the window either? I think that's a terrible answer for a cheaper solution.

Wouldn't the BEST solution is on newer cars not allow the car to be driven if the driver is not wearing a seat belt? I have seen a feature like this on a newer SUV before, I believe it was a Volvo, if the driver was not buckled in, the steering wheel would shake back and forth and wouldn't let you drive. I am sure there are many other ideas like not being able to take the car out of gear etc.

Making a car a padded room will not help IMO and only encourage more more excuses to be stupid.

[TurboSauce]

quite a few german vehicles have a feature that if the seatbelt is not in the car will not start.

[s0m3th1ngAZ]

quite a few german vehicles have a feature that if the seatbelt is not in the car will not start.

And instead of a slightly annoying chime noise when you driver while unbuckled, new cars will be mandated to include air horns that blare "WARNING, LOW INTELLIGENCE DETECTED. CONTACTING AUTHORITIES".
I am partially serious.

[Bmore-coupe]

Note that I've never been in a crash where an air bag has gone off, either.

Well, I have, and I'm perfectly ok with airbags. I walked away virtually scratch free from an accident that I probably shouldn't have. And for the record, it wasn't due to my driving, lets not forget that there are perfectly good drivers that get hit head on like I did. The car that hit me had no airbags (he also was not wearing a seatbelt, so I can see where you all are coming from) and he went through the windshield. I was wearing my seatbelt and had a million airbags (2001 Jetta had like 8 airbags) and I just got out and walked away from it fine.

[C-Kwik]

As far as I can tell from the article, it appears that they are trying to require new side airbags designs. Not additional airbags. The redesign is intended to prevent ejections out of the side window. It sounds like the additional weight and cost may be trivial.

[mechanicalmoron]

quite a few german vehicles have a feature that if the seatbelt is not in the car will not start.

That's a horrible idea.

We should give everyone the tools to be safe, like seatbelts. We should encourage them to wear them, like showing them pictures of people who didn't. But you can't force people to be safe, it's my moms job to tell me to buckle up, not take drugs, not drink and drive, stay in school, wrap my weenie, or what have you. NOT THE GOVERNMENTS DAMN BUSINESS.

What if you're in the desert, and your seatbelt breaks so your car won't start? Some of you might laugh because you live in a concrete playground, but I live in the desert. What if you're in the middle of nowhere in your supposedly hardy rough'n'tough ford truck, and the synthetic urine crap in the emissions system runs out, so your truck won't start, and you die because of an emissions system?

All these systems should at least be optional, and I have no problem with emissions systems or seatbelts, but disabling cars on which they fail is a horrible idea, vehicles are frequently instrumental in much more important things than bubbling your exhaust through urea, matters of life and death.

I dislike all schemes that make it harder to do work yourself, obselete your perfectly good tools/cars/whatever, and take choices away from you, even if some people make the wrong choice sometimes.

[krimsonviper]

Wonderful. ANOTHER mother f**king airbag that could go off spontaneously while I'm cutting someone out of their car after a wreck. That's exactly what I need.

Surprise! You're a towel!

[IBCoupe]

This might be how they figure out which airbags work best:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u011XHmY ... r_embedded[/youtube]