Stability here is being used in the chemical sense, as in "how fast it oxidizes". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemical_stability https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

Stability here is being used in the chemical sense, as in "how fast it oxidizes". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemical_stability https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemical_stability A gas generator (airbag inflater) does not detonate, it generates a large volume of gas very rapidly but at a designed (predictable) rate - the faulty airbags are detonating. Spontaneous ("accidental") deployment would be the ultimate bad instability, but I don't believe this was a major problem (yet). IIRC, there was one reference to an "accidental" deployment which could be instability-related or a fault elsewhere, e.g. in the sensor/trigger circuitry. The instability that is causing the major problems is causing faster combustion than designed.