Saturday, May 21, 2011

TRW designs roof-mounted airbag

Is your steering wheel looking a little fat? There are a number of reasons why steering wheels have beefed up over the years, but one of the biggest reasons is because of airbags. Inflatable restraint system manufacturer TRW is looking at ways to change that, and it may have a whole new type of airbag ready to go.

Rather than having the airbag deploy from behind the steering wheel, TRW has created a system in which the airbag comes down from the roof. This opens up a whole new world of automotive design when it comes to the interior space directly in front of the driver and passenger. Dashboards and steering wheels could become far more interesting than they are now.

You would expect a system like this to be far off, but TRW has been working closely with an un-named European automaker. Said automaker has just awarded TRW a production contract, which means roof-mounted airbags could arrive sooner than you think.

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