DESIGNED TO ENHANCE rear passenger safety, Ford has today unveiled the first passenger-car seatbelt airbags, due for production late next year.

In the event of a front or side impact, the seatbelt airbag will inflate in 40 milliseconds, distributing the force across an area five times greater than a regular seatbelt.

Unlike regular airbags which use a heat-generating chemical reaction - and because of the unique shape and properties of seatbelts - the seatbelt airbags are inflated through a cold compressed gas system.

Because the seatbelt airbag does not need to fill an area as great as the distance between a body and the dash or steering wheel, the seatbelt airbags inflate slower and to a lower pressure than regular airbags.

The seatbelt airbags are scheduled to appear in the next generation Ford Explorer, expanding to the carmaker's global range soon after. Ford Australia was unavailable for comment this morning.

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• reply ” like !

  

  Joe says,
  3 years ago

  Great idea...It kind of makes you wonder why it wasn't thought of before?
• reply ” like !

  

  MotoWebbi says,
  3 years ago

  @Joe,
  It has been...way back in the early '70's if my memory serves me well. This idea of inflatable seatbelts was featured in either Wheels or Modern Motor. I might still have the copy...I'll have a look and see, and will report back.
• reply ” like !

  

  MotoWebbi says,
  3 years ago

  Now that I think about it, this was before pyrotechnic/retractable/load limiting (even inertia reel!) seatbelts. I think it was, not so much an airbag function as we now know it, but more a way of taking up the slack the way pyrotechnic/retractable belts do these days, but using the airbag-triggering technology being developed in the US at the time
• reply ” like !

  

  Matt says,
  3 years ago

  Yeh I would've thought this would've been done long ago... looks like the boffins at Volvo and Merc overlooked this one