Hyundai develops safer airbag deployment system

Hyundai Motor Group, Korea’s biggest carmaker by sales, said Monday it has developed a safer airbag deployment system to better protect people from multiple crashes. The advanced airbag system immediately prepares for additional crashes once it recognizes an initial collision, in cases where the collision is not serious enough to warrant a deployment, the conglomerate said in a statement.

“If the first collision is a minor one, but the vehicle continues on and collides with something else, such as trees or street lamps, the airbag system optimizes itself to prepare for additional crashes,” a company spokesman explained to reporters over the phone.

It is the first time a Korean carmaker has developed such a multi-crash airbag system, the statement said.

Existing airbag systems do not inflate once they determine the initial collision is minor, even if subsequent impacts involve greater force and can lead to serious injury, it said.