Airbags on a car are an important safety tool like seat belts. With over six million car accidents a year in the United States, you have likely already seen or experienced an airbag being deployed. The process begins when the collision sensor sends data to the airbag module, and the airbag deploys and fills with gas. This process takes place in only seconds, protecting whoever is sitting by the airbag.
Airbags have been around in some form for over 50 years. Patents for basic airbags can be found as early as the 1950s; however, these systems lacked the crucial sensor component. There were also failures in design, such as trying to use compressed air for airbags, which did not inflate fast enough. In 1968, Allen Breed invented and patented a safety sensor system that would lead to the technology necessary to deploy airbags. This system was the world’s first electromechanical airbag system for vehicles.
Ford car company manufactured vehicles with airbags in 1971 experimentally, and General Motors followed suit. In 1973, the first the Oldsmobile Toronado became the first vehicle with airbags manufactured for the general public. In 1974, car manufacturers were required to provide either seat belts or airbags in vehicles, despite lobbying against the requirement by both Ford and GM. However, by the 1980s, most car manufactures not only accepted that airbags were necessary, but sought to improve safety on vehicles. In 1981, for example, Mercedes-Benz created a pretension seat belt that would lock and hold the passenger at impact before deploying the airbag. This was an integration of airbags and seat belts as a system instead of two separate parts, which has become standard on all vehicles.
Today, vehicle safety is continuing to improve. Most cars now have a collision sensor, which sends a signal to the airbag module causing the airbag to deploy. After the SRS airbag module is deployed, the airbag module will need to be replaced to reset. If your SRS airbag module is deployed, Safety Restore can help by resetting it. When the module deploys, crash data and hard codes get stored, which renders it useless. Using only OEM technology, Safety Restore can erase these hard codes to restore any airbag module that has been deployed. Safety Restore’s process of SR’s airbag module resetting can save you upwards of $1,000.00. If your SRS airbag module is deployed, do not delay resetting it any longer – it could save your life!