Advertisement

Top 5 new car safety innovations

MORE AT CNET

Car technology is moving fast, especially when it come to safety. What used to be a world of fairly mundane safety belts and stronger roofs has blossomed into a world of airbags in the strangest places and robotic vision to avoid impacts. CNET's Brian Cooley shows you five that just won awards for their clever innovation.

Highlights include the world’s first hood airbag system from Volvo, which softens the blow to a hapless pedestrian who would cross paths with the car. Deploying near the base of the windshield, it prevents head injuries that can occur from banging against the edge of the hood.

A surprise safety liability with modern cars is the airbag system, which typically uses sodium azide to detonate the bags on impact. Although lethal if inhaled or ingested, the chemical quickly breaks down when the bags are deployed. That said, isolated incidents with it have led to fatalities, which inspired Autoliv to create a greener, less toxic solution.