General Motors has received a patent for an airbag on the outside of vehicles designed to “provide protection to a pedestrian,” the latest iteration in an industry effort to address a growing problem that accounts for roughly one in seven U.S. traffic deaths.
“The pedestrian protection airbag could become an important engineering solution in the future,” said Tom Wilkerson, safety communications spokesman for GM.
It is not the initial impact from a vehicle that is most likely to kill pedestrians, but secondary impact when pedestrians pass over the hood and hit their heads on the heavy frame piece holding the windshield, said Maeva Ribas, manager of design analysis at The Carlab, an automotive product planning consultant.
More>>