Prioritizing Occupant Safety: How Bosch’s Airbag Control Units Save Lives
When it comes to designing the perfect vehicle, no feature is more essential than safety. Especially on India’s treacherous roads, where 1,264 road accidents occur each day (Krishnan, 2023), vehicle manufacturers need to prioritize occupant safety to minimize fatalities. Understanding this critical need for enhancing safety, Bosch develops state-of-the-art occupant safety systems (OSS), placing special emphasis on sophisticated airbag control units for automobiles.
Airbag control units: What they are, and what they do
Airbag control units are passive safety devices that function by analyzing acceleration signals from on-board and peripheral sensors to determine if a vehicle collision has occurred and how severe the collision is. The airbag control unit then reacts in milliseconds to protect the vehicle occupants from the impact of the collision through the deployment of airbags. Some of the most fundamental functions of the airbag control unit include:
- Deploying the airbags
- Tightening the occupant seatbelts
- Reclining the vehicle seats to reduce impact
- Cutting off the fuel supply or battery supply
- Unlocking the vehicle doors to ease rescue
- Initiating e-calls to ask for assistance
Why are airbag control units so important?
Other modern safety features, such as driver assistance (adaptive cruise control) or active safety (emergency braking), come into play during normal driving scenarios before the collision ever occurs. These features have relatively larger time windows to take the required actions. However, for airbag control units, the window to make life-saving decisions is mere milliseconds.
Airbag control units serve as the last line of defense in protecting vehicle occupants, coming into play as soon as a collision occurs. The entire process, from the detection of the collision to deploying the necessary protective devices, needs to take place in the blink of an eye. Hence, airbag control units play a monumental role in reducing fatalities in vehicular accidents, acting essentially as guardian angels.
Since the start of full-scale production in December 1980, Bosch has manufactured more than 250 million airbag control units, constantly refining the technology all the while. In fact, our research shows that Bosch-developed airbag systems, including airbag control units and peripheral sensors, have saved over 90,000 lives over the past 40 years (Robert Bosch GmbH, 2020).
Bosch has its airbag control units in one out of every 4 cars globally! We are a market leader globally for airbag control units and expect to sustain our market leadership for years to come.
Enhancing road safety in India
Bosch is contributing to making Indian roads safer through its localization strategy, by working with Indian car manufacturers to deliver airbag control unit for their vehicles. Developed with meticulous and stringent adherence to the highest quality and safety standards (more than 1.8 million crash simulations are necessary to prepare an airbag control unit for large-scale production in a vehicle model), our airbag control units help Indian car manufacturers protect vehicle occupants if accidents occur.
Powered by Innovation
In 2023, Bosch won the Innovation Award at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2023 for the newly developed off-zone crash detection function. Bosch is working on many more such exciting features for the newer generations of airbag control units! With an eye on incorporating the latest technologies and enhancing safety, Bosch is also actively investing in newer platforms and components.
BGSW’s role in airbag control unit development
BGSW, which is Bosch’s engineering and development center in India and Vietnam, develops the software that runs in airbag control units. BGSW has been involved in airbag control unit software development for over 20 years and has contributed significantly to the development of multiple generations of airbag control units.
What tomorrow holds: an unwavering commitment to safety and innovation
Our dedication to advancing occupant safety systems, particularly through our progress in airbag control units, underscores our steadfast dedication to saving lives and driving innovation. As we continue to focus on this sector, we aim to not only ensure the highest standards of vehicle safety but also grow as a successful global organization.
Learn More:
Visit these links to know more about Bosch’s occupant protections systems: