Toyota Develops Rear Window Airbag; Fuel-Efficient iQ to Get It First
By Scott Doggett September 30, 2008
Ever since it first appeared in a Mercedes nearly three decades ago, the airbag has ballooned in popularity and its placement has come to include every side surface area of the passenger compartment save one: the rear.
Thanks to Toyota Motor Corp., soon that will no longer be the case.
The Japanese automaker announced today that it has developed a rear window airbag to protect the heads of backseat passengers in the event of a rear-end collision.
The innovative airbag deploys from the roof lining above the rear window in the form of a curtain-like barrier. Together with the headrests, the airbag reduces impact to the head from a colliding vehicle or parts of the hit vehicle.
Its use in the soon-to-launch iQ ultra-compact fuel-efficient four-seater is expected to approximately double the car's rear passenger head protection performance.
The iQ is Toyota's response to the tiny yet popular Smart ForTwo, which suffers from safety concerns due to its size and lack of crumple zones despite the fact that it has done very well in crash tests.
Toyota is no doubt addressing similar concerns in its engineering of the iQ, which, unlike the two-seater Smart car, will fit three adults and one small child.
The vehicle is scheduled to appear in European showrooms early next year and will be exported to the United States if fuel prices remain high.
Scott Doggett, Contributor
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It was only a matter of time. They've found ways to stick airbags just about everywhere else. Does anybody remember the '90s film Demolition Man? (Hey, I'm just asking if you remember, not if you liked it). There was a scene in there where a car got in a collision and a bunch of semi-solid foam was expelled into the passenger compartment to protect its occupants. We're now one step closer to that, with 830 lbs of airbags acting as the "foam".
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