6 ms·

Hövding – Airbag for cyclists

34 points by some1else 13y ago

christiangenco 13y ago
Mirror: http://vimeo.com/43038579 http://vimeo.com/43038579 Took me a second to figure out what this actually was. At first it looked like some kind of startup parody video where they're not actually selling a product. Very cool idea! An airbag makes a lot more sense than a hard incompressible piece of styrofoam. As long as they get the deployment timings right, I see this taking off.
- zhemao 13y ago
  Yeah, I don't understand why they didn't actually show the product until the very end.
ColinWright 13y ago
Here are a few other submissions of this story: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3977212 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3977212 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4382338 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4382338 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4392310 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4392310 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4467171 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4467171 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6271073 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6271073 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6442570 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6442570 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6691432 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6691432 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6700690 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6700690 Oddly, none has any discussion of significance.
- draugadrotten 13y ago
  Could you see the Hövding be hacked to provide protection in other situations such as professional football, where there is a higher profit margin?
- jared314 13y ago
  The submissions with discussions were: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1828134 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1828134 (3 years ago) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4388056 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4388056 (1 year ago) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6685798 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6685798 (2 days ago) I remember seeing this a while ago, so it wouldn't surprise me if there were more threads lost to history.
samworm 13y ago
The "Two Swedish Girls" are two women, who studied Industrial Design at University before moving into product development. If two males in their mid twenties were launching a product no one would refer to them as "boys". "Hövding started out in 2005 as a master’s thesis by the two founders Anna Haupt and Terese Alstin, who, at the time, were studying Industrial Design at the University of Lund." The title of this post is condescending and clichéd. Yawn.
- mjolk 13y ago
  Oh, give it a rest. The topic of the submission is "Hövding – Airbag for cyclists," and if the title attribute on the linked site says "girls," then who cares. Using 'girls' instead of 'women' is similar to using 'guys' instead of 'men.' Stop feigning offense to feed into your fictional-worldview of social-righteous superiority.
ye 13y ago
€399 can get you a really really really nice helmet, like carbon fiber. And I wouldn't need to worry whether my helmet actually works, and whether I forgot to charge it (their battery only lasts 18 hours). And I wouldn't need to worry whether their patterns cover every single case when I get hit by a car or hit a curb at some weird angle.
- clarry 13y ago
  Do you know your helmet really works? Do you really know your helmet covers all these cases?
  - ye 13y ago
    Because helmets pass certifications. Because helmets are always "deployed". I know for a fact that even a shitty helmet is better than no helmet. Let alone a 400 euro helmet.
    - bosie 13y ago
      how do you know that fact?
    - saidajigumi 13y ago
      If you think those statements lead you to the truth, then I strongly recommend reading this site: http://cyclehelmets.org/ http://cyclehelmets.org/ There's a ton of interesting stuff there, but the various analyses of data from Australia, New Zealand, and other countries' passage of compulsory helmet laws shows a very non-intuitive result. Contrary to "common sense", forcing riders to wear helmets does nothing to reduce head injury rates, controlling for other factors. However, due to the "safety in numbers" effect, Australian riders became much less safe. Ridership dropped dramatically with the introduction of the compulsory helmet laws, which had the effect of increasing per-cyclist injury rates considerably. Thus the well-intentioned legislation did exactly the opposite of its stated aim.
    - sp332 13y ago
      Tests run on behalf of the NHTSA show novelty helmets being useless in a crash. http://www.fairwarning.org/2013/04/booming-sales-of-novelty-helmets-boost-toll-of-motorcycle-deaths/ http://www.fairwarning.org/2013/04/booming-sales-of-novelty-...
Ironballs 13y ago
Ah. So nice when science fiction actually happens. “She lets go of the handle and goes into free fall. At the same time, she jerks the manual release on her cervical collar and goes into full Michelin Man mode as tiny gas cartridges detonate in several strategic locations around her bod. The biggest one goes off like an M-80 at the nape of her neck, unfurling the coverall's collar into a cylindrical gasbag that shoots straight up and encases her entire head. Other airbags go off around her torso and pelvis, paying lots of attention to that spinal column.” -- Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash
- ZoFreX 13y ago
  That sounds a lot more similar to the airbag vests used in motorbike racing than the Hovding. Of course, in both the ones that actually exist, activation is automatic and not manual!
  - lcedp 13y ago
    Manual activation doesn't imply no automatic activation.
maxk42 13y ago
Why doesn't it cover the eyes?
- donutdan4114 13y ago
  I think for right now, people would be too scared to wear something that could potentially explode and cover their eyes. If they prove that these systems never accidentally go off, I think they should have a full head version that protects the full face too; or at least cover a much higher percentage of the face, maybe leaving only the eyes uncovered.
hop 13y ago
There is very little acceleration by the head when the bag senses an eminent collision and deploys as the car hits the rear wheel and the person starts to go back. I do not think or trust they can design a sensor that would deploy when it needs to without misfiring all the time. And if it fires, you have to buy a whole other one.
- ZoFreX 13y ago
  > I do not think or trust they can design a sensor that would deploy when it needs to without misfiring all the time. And if it fires, you have to buy a whole other one. Rather than merely speculating, one could look into it, given that this product is released and thus well studied and reviewed. If anything it seems to lean towards not deploying, as in minor accidents it won't go off. A decent insurance policy should cover much of the cost of replacement.
spIrr 13y ago
Why doesn't it deploy over one's back?
spajus 13y ago
400 EUR per single pop...

34 points by some1else 13y ago

Mirror: http://vimeo.com/43038579 http://vimeo.com/43038579 Took me a second to figure out what this actually was. At first it looked like some kind of startup parody video where they're not actually selling a product. Very cool idea! An airbag makes a lot more sense than a hard incompressible piece of styrofoam. As long as they get the deployment timings right, I see this taking off.

zhemao 13y ago
Yeah, I don't understand why they didn't actually show the product until the very end.

ColinWright 13y ago

Here are a few other submissions of this story: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3977212 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3977212 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4382338 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4382338 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4392310 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4392310 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4467171 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4467171 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6271073 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6271073 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6442570 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6442570 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6691432 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6691432 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6700690 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6700690 Oddly, none has any discussion of significance.

draugadrotten 13y ago
Could you see the Hövding be hacked to provide protection in other situations such as professional football, where there is a higher profit margin?
jared314 13y ago
The submissions with discussions were: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1828134 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1828134 (3 years ago) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4388056 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4388056 (1 year ago) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6685798 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6685798 (2 days ago) I remember seeing this a while ago, so it wouldn't surprise me if there were more threads lost to history.

samworm 13y ago

The "Two Swedish Girls" are two women, who studied Industrial Design at University before moving into product development. If two males in their mid twenties were launching a product no one would refer to them as "boys". "Hövding started out in 2005 as a master’s thesis by the two founders Anna Haupt and Terese Alstin, who, at the time, were studying Industrial Design at the University of Lund." The title of this post is condescending and clichéd. Yawn.

mjolk 13y ago
Oh, give it a rest. The topic of the submission is "Hövding – Airbag for cyclists," and if the title attribute on the linked site says "girls," then who cares. Using 'girls' instead of 'women' is similar to using 'guys' instead of 'men.' Stop feigning offense to feed into your fictional-worldview of social-righteous superiority.

ye 13y ago

€399 can get you a really really really nice helmet, like carbon fiber. And I wouldn't need to worry whether my helmet actually works, and whether I forgot to charge it (their battery only lasts 18 hours). And I wouldn't need to worry whether their patterns cover every single case when I get hit by a car or hit a curb at some weird angle.

clarry 13y ago
Do you know your helmet really works? Do you really know your helmet covers all these cases?
- ye 13y ago
  Because helmets pass certifications. Because helmets are always "deployed". I know for a fact that even a shitty helmet is better than no helmet. Let alone a 400 euro helmet.
  - bosie 13y ago
    how do you know that fact?
  - saidajigumi 13y ago
    If you think those statements lead you to the truth, then I strongly recommend reading this site: http://cyclehelmets.org/ http://cyclehelmets.org/ There's a ton of interesting stuff there, but the various analyses of data from Australia, New Zealand, and other countries' passage of compulsory helmet laws shows a very non-intuitive result. Contrary to "common sense", forcing riders to wear helmets does nothing to reduce head injury rates, controlling for other factors. However, due to the "safety in numbers" effect, Australian riders became much less safe. Ridership dropped dramatically with the introduction of the compulsory helmet laws, which had the effect of increasing per-cyclist injury rates considerably. Thus the well-intentioned legislation did exactly the opposite of its stated aim.
  - sp332 13y ago
    Tests run on behalf of the NHTSA show novelty helmets being useless in a crash. http://www.fairwarning.org/2013/04/booming-sales-of-novelty-helmets-boost-toll-of-motorcycle-deaths/ http://www.fairwarning.org/2013/04/booming-sales-of-novelty-...

Ironballs 13y ago

Ah. So nice when science fiction actually happens. “She lets go of the handle and goes into free fall. At the same time, she jerks the manual release on her cervical collar and goes into full Michelin Man mode as tiny gas cartridges detonate in several strategic locations around her bod. The biggest one goes off like an M-80 at the nape of her neck, unfurling the coverall's collar into a cylindrical gasbag that shoots straight up and encases her entire head. Other airbags go off around her torso and pelvis, paying lots of attention to that spinal column.” -- Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash

ZoFreX 13y ago
That sounds a lot more similar to the airbag vests used in motorbike racing than the Hovding. Of course, in both the ones that actually exist, activation is automatic and not manual!
- lcedp 13y ago
  Manual activation doesn't imply no automatic activation.

maxk42 13y ago

Why doesn't it cover the eyes?

donutdan4114 13y ago
I think for right now, people would be too scared to wear something that could potentially explode and cover their eyes. If they prove that these systems never accidentally go off, I think they should have a full head version that protects the full face too; or at least cover a much higher percentage of the face, maybe leaving only the eyes uncovered.

hop 13y ago

There is very little acceleration by the head when the bag senses an eminent collision and deploys as the car hits the rear wheel and the person starts to go back. I do not think or trust they can design a sensor that would deploy when it needs to without misfiring all the time. And if it fires, you have to buy a whole other one.

ZoFreX 13y ago
> I do not think or trust they can design a sensor that would deploy when it needs to without misfiring all the time. And if it fires, you have to buy a whole other one. Rather than merely speculating, one could look into it, given that this product is released and thus well studied and reviewed. If anything it seems to lean towards not deploying, as in minor accidents it won't go off. A decent insurance policy should cover much of the cost of replacement.

spIrr 13y ago

Why doesn't it deploy over one's back?

spajus 13y ago

400 EUR per single pop...