As the automotive industry gears up for the next phase of evolution in the industry, component makers are on an innovation drive. South Korean component maker Hyundai Mobis, part of the Hyundai Motor Group, claims to have developed the world’s first airbag system for sunroofs, reports Korean Herald.
The component maker had submitted a study to the US-based safety agency National Highway Traffic Administration (NHTA). It mentions that the thought behind the concept of a sunroof airbag came from the idea to enhance the safety of passengers during a collision or rollover of a vehicle.
The report says that the sunroof market size was estimated to be $4,924 million (Rs 31,104 crore) in 2015, with average growth projected to be around 10.9 percent by 2022. It identifies growth rate for sunroofs in the premium automotive market of China, India, and Korea to be more pronounced.
Acting on the growing demand for sunroofs in vehicles and seeing it as an important safety juncture, the company worked on various prototypes and undertook tests to come up with the optimal solution. It concluded that the shortlisted panoramic sunroof airbag will be an integrated mounting module inside the panoramic sunroof module, which will be deployed from the rear to the front along the development wire type guider. The developed airbag takes 0.08sec to go off and helps prevent serious neck and head injuries in a rollover accident.
Hyundai Mobis hopes to bag orders, particularly for panoramic sunroofs in SUVs, in the world's $5.3 billion (about Rs 33,480 crore) airbag market.
With new safety regulations slated to come into force in India, the component maker could also find a market for its airbag here, in the near future.