Toyota develops world's first rear-window airbag

By Antuan Goodwin on 01 October 2008

Today Toyota announced that it had developed the world's first rear-window curtain shield airbag to protect rear passengers' heads in the event of a rear-end collision.

(Credit: Toyota)

The new airbag was designed for and will be implemented in its upcoming microcar, the Smart ForTwo-sized iQ, which will debut in the flesh at the Paris Motor Show. At first glance we weren't really sure what this new airbag does that rear headrests don't already do. According to Toyota, however, the airbag works with the headrests to minimise impact to the head from the colliding vehicle or from parts sent flying due to the collision.

We do wonder if this new airbag system will actually work to reduce injuries, or whether it is just another bullet point safety feature for the little Toyota's spec sheet.

Topics: toyota, iq, airbag, rear-window, srs, rear, collision

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Comments (4)

  • Safetyfirst commented on 03/10/2008 19:03 Report abuse

    Obviously there is a clear lack of understanding of the dynamics during a crash. The thought that headrests are sufficient in a car this size is reminicent of the (once apon a time) comment: "who needs airbags when you have seat belts?".

  • brennanc commented on 02/10/2008 20:41 Report abuse

    Both paragraphs have the exact same tone

  • Derek Fung commented on 02/10/2008 00:51 Report abuse

    Both concluding paragraphs have almost exactly the same tone. We merely modified it because we never refer to ourselves as Car Tech in Australia.

  • canberra_photographer commented on 01/10/2008 18:18 Report abuse

    Why has Cnet Australia bootlegged this story from Cnet USA but edited the final paragraph to give it a very negative tone? The original story gives a much more neutral POV. http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13746_7-10054616-48.html

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