Acura 3.5RL Offers Tomorrow's Side Air Bag Technology Today
12 February 1999
Acura 3.5RL Offers Tomorrow's Side Air Bag Technology Today
TORRANCE, Calif., Feb. 11 -- The 1999 Acura 3.5 RL, available
in showrooms since November of 1998, features a major breakthrough in side air
bag technology to enhance front seat passenger safety. The system uses
information from sensors in the passenger side seatback to de-activate the
side air bag if the passenger is determined to be too small and out of
position.
Recognizing that a child might occasionally be placed in the front seat of
a vehicle equipped with a side air bag, the 3.5RL features an advanced side
air bag system which uses a matrix of seven sensors in the front passenger
seat to determine occupant size and seating position. Six height sensors are
integrated into the seat back to determine the passenger's size, and a head
sensor is built into the upper portion of the seat's side bolster to monitor
if a small passenger is leaning into the path of deployment of the bag. The
system uses this information to determine if it is safe to deploy the side air
bag, and de-activates the side air bag if the passenger is too small and out
of position -- such as when napping against the door.
To further reduce the risk of unintentional side air bag deployment, the
system uses a three point sensing device, composed of one central sensor and
an additional sensor at each side of the vehicle. These sensors determine the
force, direction and type of impact, then deploy the appropriate side air bag.
In addition to the side air bag protection offered in the RL, a patented
dual stage inflator varies the front SRS air bag deployment power to further
enhance occupant protection in a variety of frontal impact collisions. During
a slow speed collision, the dual-stage inflator system for the dash-mounted
air bag is triggered in sequence, resulting in slower overall air bag
deployment with less initial force. During a higher speed collision, both
inflators operate simultaneously for full immediate inflation, to correspond
with the greater impact force.
The air bag system logic also controls the operation of the seatbelt
pretensioners which automatically tighten the seatbelts during a collision to
help hold occupants in place. An additional new feature designed into the
system also detects whether the passenger's seat belt is fastened. If the
passenger seatbelt is not fastened, the air bag deploys full force at a lower
collision speed to help offer more protection to the unbelted occupant.
The RL benefits from nearly 300 refinements throughout the vehicle for the
1999 model year, including the air bag enhancements mentioned above.