At about the same time that the head curtain airbags start appearing in Saturns, dual-stage airbags will appear in Buick LeSabre, Pontiac Bonneville, Oldsmobile Aurora, and Chevrolet Impala and Monte Carlo.
The key benefit of dual-stage air bags is that they inflate with less force (meaning 70 to 80 per cent of the full deployment force) at a slower speed, and the primary beneficiaries of that will be people sitting close to the steering wheel when they do deploy.
Essentially, such a system is a big break for women who have to put the seat close to the steering wheel of the car so they can reach its pedals.
If they need the full force airbag in a high-speed crash to survive the incident, the corollary injuries that could be caused by the airbag might be acceptable. But if the crash is low speed and therefore less likely to be life threatening, those corollary injuries will be less welcome.
Sensors keep track of the deceleration speed of the vehicle hitting a solid barrier. From 19 to 26 km/h, the system may not deploy, or may deploy at first stage, depending upon how the vehicle deforms.For crashes from 26 to 29 km/h, the system is designed to inflate at its lower level. From 29 to 38 km/h, it might use the lower deployment if the vehicle deformation is not too bad. If the deformation is bad enough or if the speed is over 38 km/h the system definitely uses the full inflation rate.GM engineers admit it would be useful to have a front airbag system that knows if the occupant is wearing a seatbelt (such people do not usually need the full-force deployment, after all) but they say that they are currently unable to do that.