Airbag didn't deploy.

[01rangerxl]

The air bags probably were working fine and the vehicle's computer made the judgement call that the air bags were not necessary. It sounds like he wasn't hurt, so the Envoy did its job. What exactly is he complaining about? That he didn't get smacked in the face in a light wreck?

Trigger happy air bags are no fun. One of my friends had a BMW 325i. One day he hit a pothole, which caused the side air bags to deploy. Smacked him pretty hard in the face and he was cut by the trim panel coming off. The car was totaled by this incident, primarily because of the air bag going off.

 

[hattaresguy]

Modern vehicles have very smart airbag systems that won't go off unless they are needed.

Lexus probably has the best system out their, they also have a two speed system for low and high speed collisions.

Back in the 80's it was all G sensors, these days its quite complex.

I saw an almost new Accord nail a guard rail and the airbag didn't go off, which was good because if it did the driver would have been hurt by it. The Accords computer registered the car slowing down so when it hit the barrier the airbag wasn't needed.

 

[hattaresguy]

Originally Posted By: ahoier
Originally Posted By: Unearthed
My 2003 Sentra was clipped in the rear while I was going about 65 on the highway. I lost control and hit the middle guardrail head on. No airbag. I was told it was because of the height of guardrails the sensors go under them and the impact point is too high.
Yep. My KIA Owner's Manual actually had a "picture" of this.....black and white cartoon-ish anyways....explaining this logic.

Yes, if you were to rear-end one of those "jacked up" pick up trucks, riding on 32" All Terrain tires or wahtever they put on them, and the point of impact were, say the "hood" of the car, it would not deploy the air bags.


Back in the 80's or 90's yes they just had bumper sensors.

But say run a 2012 Mercedes S550 into that truck for argument sake and yes the airbags will go off if your going fast enough.

G and bumper sensors are old tech.

In 2012 the radar and night vision if its dark would sense the truck, calculate the impact speed, adjust the seats, pedals, windows, steering wheel, etc, than fire off the bags if needed. It will also turn on all interior lights.

Remember guys cars have come a long way since that 1999 Ford you had...

 

[jim302]

Originally Posted By: ahoier
Originally Posted By: Unearthed
My 2003 Sentra was clipped in the rear while I was going about 65 on the highway. I lost control and hit the middle guardrail head on. No airbag. I was told it was because of the height of guardrails the sensors go under them and the impact point is too high.
Yep. My KIA Owner's Manual actually had a "picture" of this.....black and white cartoon-ish anyways....explaining this logic.


I think mine has the same information and picture. If I recall correctly, it also says not to be surprised if the airbags don't go off, even if the car is not derivable after a collision.

A while back I decided to look through the complaints at safecar.gov to see how ridiculous some of them were (as expected, a lot of them were silly). Several vehicles across brands had complaints about airbags not deploying, yet those same complaints listed 0 injuries... in that case it sounds like everything worked right.

Airbags are meant to prevent serious injuries and can easily cause less serious injuries by themselves, so it is best not to set the bomb off unless it is really needed.

There are a lot of videos of intentional airbag deployment on YouTube... it is amazing how much force they go off with.