[djpeesh]

This is a spoof video. It's apparently an IKEA advert!

[Sandm4n]

Is it only me or does others too feel that the recent luxury builds have been going more faulty and erroneous than our beautiful cheaper cars.

If someday I would invest in a car as pricey as Skoda Octavia DSG, I would be at ease thinking that the car I am in is safe. Whereas it seems, after reading bout such incidents that these manufacturers somewhere are more focused on the how beautiful the vehicle is on aspects which are understandable to general consumers such as 'Displacement, tyres, mileage, luxury and design', rather than having much more clarity of the build and safety.

[Carpainter]

As I said earlier, Skoda has put the blame on the customer( rightly or not we don't know) but whatever the case may be, what is the estimated repair cost of this. Are they going to offer any discount of repair cost considering it's a brand new car and nobody is so sure whose fault it was?

[GTO]

Skoda's official response on this incident:

“According to our assessment the air bags were deployed as a safety measure due to impact on the left front and rear door. Customer service is our number one priority; we have and will continue to provide full cooperation to the customer to ensure the car is roadworthy at the earliest”

[Rehaan]

Originally Posted by ph03n!x

I'm pretty sure the B pillar of my carv have seen their share of impact, and the frontals have seen worse considering i drive in inconsiderate city traffic.

Yep, i see your point about the statistics.

Regarding city traffic, do keep in mind that airbags will only deploy if the vehicle speed is greater than xx km/h (guessing in the 20-60 km/h range, but not sure).

Originally Posted by ph03n!x

... I'd like to know what triggers a deployment -am sure it can't be one sensor or area that does it, layman's perspective.

+

Originally Posted by fine69

This is not how airbags would deploy unless there's a sensor malfunction otherwise you can't imagine the number of airbags going off in a typical Indian neighbourhood, thanks to gully cricket/football and what not.

I'd imagine airbag deployment follows a set of criteria something like :
- Vehicle speed should faster than the set threshold
- Rate of deceleration should be more rapid than the set threshold
- Mutliple sensors should confirm change in reading / impact
- Are seat-belts clipped in (?)
- Is there weight in the passengers seat
- Has the passenger's side airbag been turned off for child safety

Originally Posted by fine69

Whenever there's a life at stake it should be the other way round, but that maybe just my opinion.

While this sounds noble, and I almost agreed to it on first reading it - i don't think it's right. (Eg. An innocent person being accused of murder should be presumed to be guilty unless proven otherwise? I disagree)

Originally Posted by nitinbose

Here's one such scenario:

This is definitely a spoof / fake video. Like i mentioned, airbags don't activate below a certain speed.

cya
R

[Gannu_1]

Originally Posted by Rehaan

airbags don't activate below a certain speed.

I thought speed of the vehicle wasn't taken into consideration for airbags to deploy.

I am curious, suppose the vehicle is parked by the side of a road and a vehicle hits the front of the car at a high speed, wouldn't the airbags deploy upon impact? Assuming there are occupants inside it ideally should. Perhaps, the impact sensors/accelerometers would sense the impact and trigger the ACU to deploy the airbags? Not sure.

[Rehaan]

Originally Posted by Gannu_1

I am curious, suppose the vehicle is parked by the side of a road and a vehicle hits the front of the car at a high speed, wouldn't the airbags deploy upon impact?

Hi Gannu_1,

Answers are unclear to me. I guess the "requirements" would change from country to country - but I'm under the impression that airbags don't ever deploy if vehicle speed is 0 km/h.

I did come across a few links that mentioned the required 7Gs of deceleration, and something like a 12 (?) mph speed (provided 7Gs of deceleration was reached).

cya
R

[funkydevil]

Heres what the Octavia owners manual has to say about airbag deployment conditions. Found from the below link on the Skoda India website:-

http://www.skoda-auto.co.in/worldwid...ers-manual.pdf

Scroll to page 146 for the info, or see the relevant pages below:

[VeyronSuperSprt]

Originally Posted by Rehaan

I guess the "requirements" would change..

1. Airbag deployment conditions differ from manufacturer to manufacturer and are based on various parameters such as vehicle stiffness to weight ratio etc.

2. Usually the minimum speed for activating airbags is around 12 kmph (8mph)

3. They also usually need two consecutive pulses of ~1G for smaller vehicles and ~2G for larger vehicles.

4. In the example quoted above, if the impact on the parked car leads to it moving at the minimum speed along with the required G's the airbags would deploy. If the impact on the parked was such that there was no movement of the parked car, then of course the airbags would not deploy.

5. My assessment of the Octavia from the pics is that there was a side impact which caused the bags to deploy. Dents do not happen after the bags are deployed.

[longhorn]

The most likely cause for airbag deployment is sensor failure. Skoda being Skoda will of course not accept that and will try to push the blame on the customer. The door could very well have dented during the airbag deployment. I find it difficult to believe that an external impact resulted in bent doors without leaving even a single scratch on the doors. We need to keep in mind that a Skoda is no tin can to just bend at will.

[nitinbose]

Originally Posted by Rehaan

This is definitely a spoof / fake video. Like i mentioned, airbags don't activate below a certain speed.

Could be, but I just wanted to mention there are a number of causes when an airbag could be deployed under abnormal circumstances.

There are also instances when the airbags would not be deployed even in genuine instances. There was a case of a merc that underwent an accident and the airbags did not deploy and the driver, who was a very young man, died. The car was supposedly a gift from his father.

In any case, its the owner of the car in question (Skoda Octavia) that is suffering from a loss!

[alpha1]

Originally Posted by VeyronSuperSprt

5. My assessment of the Octavia from the pics is that there was a side impact which caused the bags to deploy. Dents do not happen after the bags are deployed.

I believe the photos show rear door losing the alignment with the frame, not sure if it shows any dent.
Why can't this happen with an air bag deployment?
After all airbags are deployed as an explosion - and as much as you may want to channel all the force towards the passenger - there will be an equal force on the door pushing it outside.

[audioholic]

Originally Posted by alpha1

I believe the photos show rear door losing the alignment with the frame, not sure if it shows any dent.
Why can't this happen with an air bag deployment?
After all airbags are deployed as an explosion - and as much as you may want to channel all the force towards the passenger - there will be an equal force on the door pushing it outside.

The deformation of the top portion of the door frame would be because of airbag deployment as you said. However there is a dent on the door just above the running board. Apparently this is the area where the airbag sensors are located. That would indicate an impact which triggered the airbag mostly. Since the Germans are quite well built, perhaps the door didn't get damaged much because of the impact.

Guess the owner tried to cook a smart story to avoid the replacement costs

[karts]

Just a thought, Could it be that, the owner had Paint protection film (PPF) on the lower part of the doors and removed it after the impact? I have seen a youtube video of a badly scratched & dented car on the sides with PPF and once the owner removed it, there were only dents with no scratches.

[RavSam]

Was searching if airbags can deploy if the car is stationary and I found this:

http://wtvr.com/2012/06/07/airbags-d...babies-inside/