Development of Instrument Panel with Driver's Knee Air Bag

In recent years, calls for improving passive safety performance in vehicles have been growing worldwide. In response to these expectations, development of a knee air bag has been progressing as one of many effective safety systems, and is now becoming a standard in some vehicles. Following the global trend, we have succeeded in installing the world's first knee air bag in the driver's instrument panel of mass-market cars. The instrument panel incorporating the driver's knee air bag was installed in the “CALDINA”, a sport wagon with exciting and aggressive image. This model was released in Japan in September of last year, and has maintained its popularity. (Fig. 1 shows the outline, and Fig. 2 is a view around the instrument panel.)

The instrument panel we developed is an outstanding product that demonstrates high safety performance during a frontal collision with a driver's knee air bag, and at the same time, possesses an appealing instrument panel design.