Trying to step up their safety game in order to stay ahead of the competition, Hyundai has come up with a new safety feature. The world’s first Panorama Sunroof Airbag system has a simple job. It stops you getting tossed out of the car in the event of an accident that shatters the glass roof or when the car rolls over.  

Come to think of it, this is a much needed safety feature and it’s interesting no other car maker had thought of it before. The Panorama Sunroof Airbag is a production of Hyundai Mobis, the Korean car maker’s parts and components arm, who has an affinity for advanced airbags. They made the fourth-generation advanced airbag and inter-passenger airbag systems.

The way Hyundai’s Panorama Sunroof Airbag work is the same as the side curtain airbags that protects you from smashing into the glass. It is installed inside the sunroof, and deployed forward from the rear of the car, covering the entire roof surface of the vehicle in just 0.08 seconds using a gas inflation system. So not only does this airbag stops the passengers getting flung out of the car, it also reduces the risk of head injuries. This is most useful for the rear passengers, as they rarely fasten their seat belts and are therefore more prone to go airborne and turn into a human projectile in a high speed crash.

The Hyundai Mobis panorama sunroof airbag system is more complex compared to ordinary airbags, and features more technological difficulty. During its development, engineers identified that it was important to secure enough space for stable airbag deployment when making the sunroof. The airbag must also be deployed safely in a way that fits the situation, such as when the sunroof screen is open or closed in an accident. Therefore, if the car is overturned when the sunroof is closed, the airbag is deployed across between the sunroof glass and the sun shield.