Toronto, Ontario – Recently, Ford has filed a patent with the United States Patent and Trademark Office for a floor-mounted airbag intended to protect passengers from unstable- nonstationary cargo during a collision through a protective cushion.
Specifically, the patent offers a reimagined floor c-shaped airbag system hidden underneath the cargo area near the back rear seats that would be connected to sensors as well as a tether and retractor hook along the side pillar of the vehicle.
With this system, when the vehicle enters a sudden stop or a collision, the inflator in the airbag would receive an activation signal from the sensors, which would lead it to fill the bags with gas. The retractor would then pull the tether to haul the bag up to cover the rear seats of the vehicle to protect from any flying cargo.
In their patent application, Ford reiterated that “the airbag is designed to prevent passage of cargo from the cargo compartment to the passenger compartment during a vehicle impact.”
Another version of the design shows the c-shaped airbag system extending over the rear seatback to protect passengers’ heads during a sudden stop or collision.
As always, this patent application may never make it to the production stage, but the initial designs offer one technical solution against protecting passengers from internal impacts as well as external.
