In a serious crash, an airbag has only milliseconds to make an incredibly important decision. It must determine whether a collision is severe enough to deploy, calculate what is happening to the vehicle, and inflate a protective cushion before your body has even had time to react. But how does a car know a crash is happening so quickly?

In this episode, we explore the fascinating engineering behind automotive airbag systems. We dive into mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, physics, materials science, computer systems, and automotive safety technology to understand how vehicles detect crashes and respond almost instantaneously.

We examine accelerometers, crash sensors, electronic control units, impact detection algorithms, deceleration measurements, airbag inflators, gas generators, seat belt pretensioners, occupant sensors ...