You know you are doing it right when you fool the car into deploying the curtains!

 

while i hear you loud and clear on the lawyers and know safety is key as a continuous improvement Engineer for a manufacturing company in the aerospace industry with a mechanical engineering degree and a former camaro owner where theres a will theres a way to both hold the lawyers at bay keep safety at first priority and preventing this from happening

 

You forgot these: . . . .

-Geoff

 

No I didn't actually.... It was my choice to leave them out but thanks for noticing

 

While I like the concept I think the side curtain airbags should work in unison with the front impact airbags meaning an impact must actually be detected before deployment.

The same lawyers who would likely come after GM if the airbags didn't deploy can easily come after GM for airbags that deployed too soon and either burned the occupants or worse got in the way of a driver trying to avoid a crash.

I can think of situations on icy roads where the computer could perceive driving conditions similar to those seen on this drifting track except the driver is trying to get control of their vehicle. In this instance the shock of an airbag deployment inches from the drivers head and subsequent restricted visibility could actually cause the driver to crash.

 

I don't think you would ever meet the abrupt gforce change on ice .

 

Fine. How 'bout at an autocross? Maybe on alternate wheels and Hoosier A6s?

A big, heavy, powerful car will need to do a fair bit of "slithering" around the cones to be quick. Hell I have to do that in my not nearly so big, not nearly so heavy, and not nearly so powerful car on a set of 315s.

 

I am with Chewie on this. That was a little overly sensitive. Is this really trying to predict rollover? Left and right slip leading to a roll?

Perhaps it is a case of working exactly as designed, but if that is true then the design needs to re-examined.

 

if you were sliding on ice and hit clean pavement without ice on it you would get an abrupt snap. If the air bags deployed then and you had a chance in saving the car from spinning out of control that may end your chance. I just think its crazy that a performance car (not a cruze) had this happen. I wonder if someone put their mustang in the same situation if it would happen? Maybe i need to rent one and do some testing in a safe environment. I am a diehard gm fan and have owned 11 new gms in the last 16 years (2 gas 1500 trucks 3 2500 diesels and 6 performance cars or suvs) none had side air bags and based on this I am glad they didn't because that could have happened to me.