3 ms·

Imagine selling a car airbag system separate from the car.

dharmab 6y ago
Kind of hard to put an airbag on a bike. Honda tried with the Gold Wing. It only worked to prevent an over-the-bars crash. Didn't help in common lowside and highside crashes. Plus most bikes don't have any room for an airbag anyway, as anyone who's had to work on a cramped modern bike can attest to.
olyjohn 6y ago
Would be pretty sweet. We could retrofit older cars with some modern safety features... but the problem is that they have to be integrated into the design of the car. The airbag can't be too close or too far away, or hit you from the wrong angle.. or else it could end up killing you. Also airbags for cars are designed to keep you from smashing your body into the interior of the car. Airbags for riders are to keep you from smashing into the ground or other objects. I think it's pretty rare that colliding with the bike itself happens. That's why bikes don't have airbags on them.
- throwaway0a5e 6y ago
  Would be pretty easy to integrate airbags into old cars. Measure minimum distance from seat back to steering wheel and then configure airbag based on that (probably remove jumpers or something to control detonation). Sensor locations are pretty standard and modern airbags and computers are fast enough that you don't need to use crumple zones as a hack to buy time for the bag to go off before the occupant starts moving toward the space the bag will be in.
  - olyjohn 5y ago
    Yeah but most older cars have steering wheels with no place for an airbag, and a slip-ring with 1 conductor for the horn. Maybe something from the 80s will have a 3 conductor slip ring for cruise control or something... that would be the hard part. Nobody who has an old car will want some ugly airbag tacked on somewhere. It has to be tightly integrated and be invisible or nobody would buy it.
sudosysgen 6y ago
Motorcycle airbags are worn and are not part of the bike.

Kind of hard to put an airbag on a bike. Honda tried with the Gold Wing. It only worked to prevent an over-the-bars crash. Didn't help in common lowside and highside crashes. Plus most bikes don't have any room for an airbag anyway, as anyone who's had to work on a cramped modern bike can attest to.

olyjohn 6y ago

Would be pretty sweet. We could retrofit older cars with some modern safety features... but the problem is that they have to be integrated into the design of the car. The airbag can't be too close or too far away, or hit you from the wrong angle.. or else it could end up killing you. Also airbags for cars are designed to keep you from smashing your body into the interior of the car. Airbags for riders are to keep you from smashing into the ground or other objects. I think it's pretty rare that colliding with the bike itself happens. That's why bikes don't have airbags on them.

throwaway0a5e 6y ago
Would be pretty easy to integrate airbags into old cars. Measure minimum distance from seat back to steering wheel and then configure airbag based on that (probably remove jumpers or something to control detonation). Sensor locations are pretty standard and modern airbags and computers are fast enough that you don't need to use crumple zones as a hack to buy time for the bag to go off before the occupant starts moving toward the space the bag will be in.
- olyjohn 5y ago
  Yeah but most older cars have steering wheels with no place for an airbag, and a slip-ring with 1 conductor for the horn. Maybe something from the 80s will have a 3 conductor slip ring for cruise control or something... that would be the hard part. Nobody who has an old car will want some ugly airbag tacked on somewhere. It has to be tightly integrated and be invisible or nobody would buy it.

sudosysgen 6y ago

Motorcycle airbags are worn and are not part of the bike.