Seatbelts With Airbags? Ford Believes It's The Future of Safety

Thursday, Ford announced their intention to take safety to new heights not yet reached in today's vehicles by introducing the first seatbelt with an airbag. This announcement triggered the normal who, what, where, when and how line of questions. For the moment, we know that this new safety technology is intended for rear seat passengers and is slated to debut in the 2011 Ford Explorer redesign−meaning it will certainly be available to the masses.

It is the opinion of some that rear seat passenger have been neglected over the years when the topic of safety is concerned. The front passengers enjoy airbags out the wazoo, including front, side and curtain airbags. Front passengers also have the luxury of adjustable seatbelts, which reduce seatbelt trauma in the event of an accident. No, not for the rear seat passengers, the most they generally get in today's cars are side and curtain airbags. I personally don't think this is a really detriment to the rear passenger's safety, but in today's world where safety is "King", I guess Ford's introduction is the next logical step. In fact, they aren't the only ones introducing airbags in seatbelts, Lexus is also said to be working on it for their up and coming supercar. That probably means you would be seeing it real soon in the likes of the Camry and Highlander in the future.

Until then, we will have to wait and see how this new technology fairs in the government crash tests. In theory, the seatbelt airbag should help to distribute the force of an impact across the passenger's body and therefore reduce the trauma that is associated with impact. There isn't a lot of detail on how the airbag inflates, but the seatbelts are said to operate like a normal seat belt AND be compatible with child seats.

Bottom line--The next phase in automotive safety is coming and Ford is trying to live up to their new image by being on the leading edge.