Pairing AI With Airbags Could Be A Life-Saving Improvement, Tesla Says
Say what you will about Tesla—good or bad, the brand has brought about some truly phenomenal pieces of technology over its relatively short life. Now the brand is turning its innovative talents to airbags, and reportedly, the improvements could be the difference between life and death.
70 milliseconds might not sound like much (and it isn't), though Tesla says that's how much faster its Artificial Intelligence (AI) infused airbags can deploy than the traditional type. By including AI in the brand's "Tesla Vision" camera system, the airbags can activate in an almost predictive manner. It's not just the airbag; using these cameras and predictive AI, the car can apply the brakes, activate the seatbelt pretensioners, and so on.
Tesla says, "This can be the difference between serious injury & walking away from a crash," but we can extrapolate some and deduce that this tiny amount of time could in reality be the difference between life and death, especially should the tech make its way to other brands and vehicles that aren't under the Tesla umbrella.
Naturally, there are some questions here. By using the cameras (and AI) instead of the usual bumper and crumple zone-mounted sensors, there's added complexity and places in which the technological handoff could get messy.
Tesla is allegedly starting to introduce this tech on all of its new cars. If nothing else, hopefully it saves some lives.
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Based in Connecticut, Ross hosts The Hooniverse Podcast. He has been in the off-road world since he was a kid riding in the back of his dad’s YJ Wrangler. He works in marketing by day and in his free time contributes to Hooniverse, AutoGuide, and ATV.com, and in the past has contributed to UTV Driver, ATV Rider, and Everyday Driver. Ross drives a 2018 Lexus GX460 that is an ongoing build project featured on multiple websites and the podcast.
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