A Study of Driver Interactions with an Inflating Air Cushion

Conceptually, a steering wheel mounted air cushion is inflated before the upper torso of the driver significantly interacts with the cushion. However, this might not be the case for some seating postures or vehicle crash environments which could cause the driver to significantly interact with an inflating cushion.

These experiments utilized several environments to study the interaction between an inflating driver air cushion and mechanical surrogates. In these laboratory environments, the measured responses of mechanical surrogates increased with diminishing distance between the surrogate's sternum and the steering wheel mounted air cushion.