Hyundai’s new center console airbag

Usually, top of the line variant of a vehicle includes all the safety features, but Hyundai Motor Corporation found the gap in achieving the best safety standards. Hyundai discovered that there is still an area in which the passengers are not protected, and that area lies between the cabin seats of the driver and front passenger.

As per the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association’s statistics, the rate of secondary harm caused by passenger impacts and hitting the materials inside is about 45%. 

So, to avoid this collision, Hyundai developed a center-console mounted airbag which handles the serious safety concern of front passengers hitting each other in a collision.

Upon triggering, the airbag inflates and covers the space between the front passengers and prevent a collision. It also has tethers to make sure the airbag stays in the right position to protect the passengers.

It is predicted that the Hyundai centre console airbag reduces the head injuries caused to front passengers due to hitting with each other by 80%.

The new patented technology is used by the automaker to develop the airbag by reducing its weight and size while improving its reliability. The internally provided tether supports the lightweight airbag from inside. It is approximately 500 grams lighter than competitors which also lets the automaker to design the seats for future vehicles in a large number of ways.

Hyock In Kwon, research engineer, Hyundai’s Crash System Engineering Design Team explained that the team is also in the process of developing some other features for the passenger’s safety. He quoted, “We will continue striving to further improve passenger safety by being ready for all kinds of accidents”.

With this new centre console airbag, Hyundai is likely to receive good ratings in the safety parameters of the Euro NCAP safety organization, as it also added a side-impact parameter in the safety list.

Hyundai Kona, Santa Fe, Tucson, and Nexo are already among the high-rated Hyundai cars which have earned high standards in the safety tests of Euro NCAP, NHTSA and also achieved the Top Safety Pick a tag from IIHS.

Also read: Hyundai IONIQ obtains five-star Euro NCAP crash test rating