Question

As mechanical engineering explain the reason why an early airbag was a failure, and the reason any system acquisition processes that were not followed that may have contributed to the failure.

Answer 1

Initial airbags were failure for following reasons:

• When airbags would get deployed, the amount of air that would fill was not properly caliberated, thus instead of providing cushion effect, airbags would harm the passengers
• Certain companies were using volatile propellants (which will inflate the airbag) to reduce the cost of airbags. These volatile propellants were hazardous and have resulted serious casualties and death as well.
• The sensors were not properly installed on the car bumper, thus a very high-speed collision never resulted in airbag deployment.
• Another issue was that sensors were installed only on the front bumper, thus only a head on collision would deploy airbags not in any other orientation.