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Bosch, the company that produces dynamic stability control systems for Holden and Ford, revealed its new smart airbags system at a CAPS (combined active and passive safety) forum in Melbourne last week.
The Bosch CAPS system uses a car's existing stability-control sensors and computing hardware to predict when it is likely to crash.
It then prepares the airbag for immediate deployment, saving precious milliseconds that could make all the difference in reducing the level of injury or avoiding injury altogether.
The system is already being fitted, mainly to expensive European cars. But with the big guns from Holden, Ford, Toyota and Mitsubishi, including Holden chairman Denny Mooney, attending the Bosch forum, CAPS could be introduced as early as the next-generation Commodore and Falcon.
Bosch chassis vice-president Patrick Ross says: "I think the fact we have all of the local manufacturers represented at this forum in fairly significant numbers shows they are definitely interested.
`We are saying `here is the technology' and we are ready to support the local manufacturers with whatever they want."
The system's main electronic control unit (ECU) is made by Bosch in Clayton, as is the electronic stability control (ESP) system already used on some Commodore, Falcon and Territory models.
Bosch currently has next-generation VE Commodore test mules but won't confirm if these are testing the CAPS system.
Holden spokesman Jason Laird says the company doesn't talk about future products, including the VE Commodore.
Ford spokesman Andrew Ellis also refuses to confirm whether the CAPS system will appear on the next-model Falcon or Territory, but says the company is always looking at developing safety technologies.
Bosch's CAPS is being developed using its uprated ESP Plus and ESP Premium modules to prepare for a rollover. This predicts when a car is going to flip, based on the car's sideways speed and rotation angle, and fires the side airbags three times faster than a car that doesn't have the system.
Bosch revealed other safety technologies at the forum, such as infra-red cameras to help drivers see pedestrians at night, and ultrasonic detectors that differentiate between a person and a solid object, such as a garbage bin, to set off external airbags to protect pedestrians.
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