I was browsing the internet today building a Ford Super Duty on the Ford website that I will never buy because new diesels require DEF (another can of worms). I found that the new Fords have optional inflatable seatbelts.

Interestingly, according to this article these seatbelts were available in 2011, which is when my wife and I bought our Ford Flex we just traded.

http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/n...dren/index.htm

I don't recall seeing the inflatable seatbelt system at the Ford dealership when we bought the Flex. In addition, when we bought my wife's Kia Soul in 2016 and the Kia Sorento just recently, there wasn't a similar system offered by Kia.

Is this a Ford proprietary system? Seems like this technology would be picked up quickly by other manufacturers, if not mandated by Uncle Sam. Then again, I remember automatic seatbelts were popular in the 90s and now they aren't even used anymore:



While writing this I thought about the development of airbags in general. I recall hearing that Oldsmobile was the first GM division to introduce the airbag. Sure enough, it's cited here:

https://www.consumeraffairs.com/news..._invented.html

 

Actual publications from GM... I thought I had one for 1973 as well...

 

John, that's very cool!

Here's a picture of the early GM airbags:



I wonder if the only parts of the system were the airbag / steering wheel and the trigger device or if the steering column was different as well?

 

Think the 73 Impala was the first USA car to offer a driver's side airbag optionally.

 

I had heard that Oldsmobile was the first domestic manufacturer to install airbags sometime around 1973/1974. Whichever division it was, I know it's mentioned in the book Setting the Pace: Oldsmobile's First 100 Years .

 

I'll have to look tonight you may be right...memories the second thing to go.

 

I am almost certain (barring the occasional senior moment), of the GM products, Oldsmobile was the first in 1973 with the Toronado... I'll have to look a little harder for my 73 manual like the ones above...

 

i actually looked at a 73 impala oh 30+ years ago that had an airbag

 

May very well have been optional GM wide for 73 on certain higher level cars, Caprice, Toro, Electra deuce in a quarter, Grandville, Bonnie. I do know the Impala had the option, I've seen a couple. Cutting edge for 73 no matter how you cut it. Sure wouldn't want to get hit in the face with a 45-year-old bag.

 

 

Gm also had an anti-lock brake option around the same time on the full size cars. The old "b" movie "Moving Violation" from '76 showed a Delta 88 crashing & the air bags going off. The stunt driver had to have some big ones to trust an unknown technology like that back then!!

 

In the movie Smokey and the Bandit a 1974 (unless I'm mistaken) Oldsmobile Delta 88 appears at the end of the movie:


Apparently, the same Delta 88 later appears repainted in the movie Moving Violations.


Check out our thread on Smokey and the Bandit:

https://classicoldsmobile.com/forums...er-bandit.html

I found this on IMDB:

"Near the end of the movie, one of the two Georgia State Patrol cars that block the entrance to the fairgrounds (the Oldsmobile) is equipped with an airbag (very rare for the '70s). General Motors did offer the airbag as the Air Cushion Restraint System in 1974 as RPO AR3 in full-sized Buick, Oldsmobile, and Cadillacs after it was experimented with some 1973 Chevrolet Impalas used as test mules. The airbags were used in conjunction with a knee blocker on the instrument panel. GM discontinued the ACRS after the 1976 model year in response to low demand. The airbag did not deploy in that minor collision but did deploy when they purposely wrecked the car years later. That car is shown in an airbag safety film used in some traffic schools."