ZF reveals world’s first Pre-crash External Side Airbag System

Side impact collisions are among the most dangerous type of road traffic accidents and accounting for a large number of road crash fatalities every year globally. Technology company and Tier 1 supplier ZF has developed a new pre-crash safety system prototype which uses an external side airbag deployed milliseconds before a collision.  ZF gave a live demonstration of the prototype for what is said to be the world’s first pre-crash occupant safety system with an external side airbag in Memmingen.

ZF reports that the system provides an additional lateral crumple zone, which can help save lives and reduce occupant injury severity by up to 40 percent. To make this possible, ZF has networked the airbags to the vehicle’s sensor systems and developed algorithms that are capable of determining if a crash is imminent and decide whether or not to deploy the airbag.  

Uwe Class, head of the safe mobility systems department, within ZF’s advanced engineering team, “We highlighted that this safety system has the potential to significantly reduce occupant injury severity in cases of side impact collisions. ZF is currently the only company to provide the full spectrum of integrated vehicle safety technology – from sensor systems, algorithms, and control units to active and passive actuators. Our deep understanding of the entire ’see. think. act.’ process enables us to conceptualize and realize integrated vehicle safety solutions such as the new pre-crash safety system.”

Programmed for split-second decisions
Experts at ZF explain that the biggest challenge in the development of this system was reliably recognising an unavoidable collision and deploying the external side airbag before the collision takes place. The system has approximately 150 milliseconds to make the decision to deploy the airbag and fill it – roughly the amount of time it takes a person to blink.

The vehicle’s sensors first have to identify a potential impact quickly and accurately. This is possible with connected cameras, radar and lidar. Algorithms within the system software decide whether or not a collision is unavoidable and the deployment of the airbag is both possible and beneficial. If these decisions are all affirmative, the system ignites the inflators to fill the airbag. The airbag, which has a capacity of between 280 and 400 liters (five to eight times the volume of a driver airbag) depending on the vehicle, then expands upwards from the side sill to form an additional crumple zone in the door area between the A and C pillars.

Reduce the risk of injury by 30%
In a side impact collision, the occupants on the side of the impact are at particular risk of serious injuries in the chest area if the passenger cabin is severely deformed. ZF claims that its pre-crash safety system can reduce the penetration of the intruding vehicle by up to 30 percent, helping to significantly reduce the occupants’ risk of injury.

The predictive information about an unavoidable collision also helps to further improve the effectiveness of established standard safety technology. For example, the ACR8 Active Control Retractor can warn the occupants or help secure them in a safe position in the critical fractions of a second before the collision.