At the risk of pissing off the people who care about automobile safety only as far as it enables them to earn internet virtue points... Which decelerates your

At the risk of pissing off the people who care about automobile safety only as far as it enables them to earn internet virtue points... Which decelerates your face more gently, 14" of air space for it to flop around in or 5" of air followed by 9" of airbag? Engineering tradeoff are everywhere. You're absolutely right that slowing down slowly is the name of the game. Failing that, evenly spreading the force is the next best thing.