27
Apr 2012
Top five most fascinating safety features
Seatbelts, airbags, side-impact bars. Once a madman's dream - now the reality in any car you care to buy, in the UK at least. But while these inventions may seem mundane in this day and age there are other safety aids so bizarre that they could cause you to, well, lose control of your vehicle.
Some of these new safety ideas may seem revolutionary and some may seem a little ridiculous with each safety feature aimed at either protecting someone in an accident, or preventing an accident from happening.
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Below is a countdown of the top five most fascinating, brilliant - or, if you prefer, ridiculous - car safety features.
Carkoon - the 'baby dome'
Child safety in cars is a difficult one as babies can be more vulnerable in road accidents due to being small and frail.
The Carkoon is a rear facing baby seat that deploys an 'AirShield' and cocoons the baby to protect them on impact in the event of an accident.
The baby is supplied with 20 minutes of protection and GPS coordinates are sent to emergency services so that the baby can be located.
The airbag itself is fireproof and made of the same Kevlar material used for body armour.
Detachable gull wing doors
The Mercedes SLS AMG Roadster is a very attractive car, but imagine if you crashed and it flipped on to its roof, you wouldn't be able to get out because it has gull wing doors that lift up instead of to the side.
Fear not, the SLS has detachable doors so that if you are ever unfortunate enough to get trapped, you can detach the doors and escape.
The doors are attached using 'explosive hinge pins' which if necessary, allow the doors to pop off so you can crawl out.
Bonnet airbags
Recently featured on the Volvo V40 are bonnet airbags that give pedestrians extra head protection in the event of a collision.
When the car detects contact with a pedestrian the airbag is deployed between the bonnet and the windscreen, reducing the risk of head injuries.
The bonnet also rises slightly so that there is less risk of the pedestrian crumbling the bonnet and injuring themselves on the engine underneath.
Retractable hood ornaments
Following years of hoopla over hood ornaments and their possible risks, some manufacturers, such as Bentley, designed ornaments that retract back into the bonnet in the event of a collision.
Bentley's 'Flying B badge' is a perfect example as it poses a potential risk to pedestrians because of its pointy shape. So, Bentley incorporated the retractable ornament system.
However, Bentley hit a few snags as the system reportedly failed a few times, causing it to recall over a thousand of its models for repair.
Cyclist helmet airbag
This feature offers cyclists universal head safety on the road as an airbag is deployed on the helmet in the event of an accident.
Although it may sound pretty basic it is a fairly new concept that could potentially be the next big thing in terms of cyclist safety.
As well as protecting cyclists from general mishaps when falling off their bikes, it also protects them from the dangers of head injury with car collisions.
It has also seen many people finding the headwear 'fashionable'.