I am mostly interested in the cybertruck because it is a six seater, but where the heck are they going to put an airbag for the middle passenger in the front row? Depending on how the seat positioning works for the front bench, the screen could get pretty close to the middle passenger's face in the event of a collision. Thoughts?
Good question. Flexible OLED screen like the Samsung fold with a airbag behind it that rips through the screen on deployment? I'll see if I can model something for the interior tomorrow with seating positions and dash etc.
There does seem to be the roof bar right in front of the front row so perhaps a curtain of some sort that comes down, similar to side curtain airbags... I'm no lawyer, but it seems like airbags are required for driver and passenger's in the US. I'm not sure how the middle passenger in this bench seating arrangement fits into this requirement. I haven't seen front bench seats in the US in several years.
My fathers current 2019 chevy silverado seats six like the Cybertruck. There is NO middle airbag in the front and no law that says there needs to be one.
Safety standards for trucks are different (and much lower) than cars. There is no legal requirement for an airbag.
Looks hopeful as long as it can clear the bottom of the screen and reach the passenger’s head area. Hopefully Tesla has a solution. Last thing they need is more news about passengers head butting the screen.
Airbags can fill areas that are not directly in front of them, as can be seen by side curtain airbags, etc. So the middle position could be covered by an extension of the passenger airbag, for example.
No vehicle has front center airbags. Most pickups even have a switch to turn off the passenger side airbag
The Cybertruck will need no fricking airbag inside, there will be outside perimeter airbags for damage control and a pampers gun for general audience. Seriously, my guess is that it will be right under the screen if any. Riding that middle sit for long time will be no fun for anyone anyway.
You could use a pyrotechnic to retract the screen and get it out of the crash zone. I’ve seen BMWs with head rests that deploy a few inches forward during a crash event for whiplash control. Have to be replaced once deployed. a curtain type airbag coming down from the roof seems easier though... and a knee air bag would prevent submarining. There’s another thread hypothesizing about what class they will go for. Some of the heavier ones have no airbag requirements, but the manufacturers may be adding them even without a requirement. Once it’s established as a standard practice, pretty hard to avoid liability if you leave it out...
Yes and no, it is the gross vehicle weight rating that determines what safety standards a truck needs to comply to and you are correct once you enter f 650 or similar such as a 5-ton truck and larger, airbags are not a requirement. same for class 8 on road semis and such.
I think you can fairly easily argue the trimotor could be a class 3 medium duty truck like a F350. Don’t have to go further than that. Seems unlikely they will omit airbags even if they could and the single and dual motor variants would have a hard time getting to class 3 based on advertised specs.
Yes, I’m European and it would probably require airbags here, but I know the Bollinger cars are designed without airbags because they don’t need them for the (US) class they’re aiming at. IMHO Tesla’s probably designing it with airbags though. And, as was mentioned earlier, it is beneficial to get the screen out of the way in a collision. It’s not like you won’t have to fix and replace anything after an airbag inflating collision anyway. I could see an airbag in the screen “stand” which flips the screen up and forward and replaced it with an inflated airbag.
I wish I could buy a car without airbags. I was in a rear ender in my 2014 Black Tesla Model S. The airbag went off and damaged my hand. It did not help me one bit. My body was restrained by the seat belt. I think we should be researching force fields... Brent