Long Overdue: Airbags Are, Allegedly, Finally Coming To UTVs
It's almost like the side-by-side industry has needed this tech for a decade. Finally, the long overdue and seemingly ancient tech that is alrbags, are coming to UTVs. Or at least allegedly they are, the news for which we can thank our good friends at UTV Driver.
It's not like airbags are wildly innovative tech. Invented in the 1950s and not mandated until the 1990s, the actual life-saving crash-suppressing technology is one of the modern marvels of tech.
Cars, trucks, and SUVs have long since had airbags. Hell, Radiohead opened OK Computer with a track titled "Airbag" in 1997. This is seemingly ancient tech in the automotive space. Thankfully, airbags are now supposedly coming to UTVs.
Autoliv, a Swedish company that is the actual largest worldwide manufacturer of vehicular safety parts, has submitted patents that look distinctively like they are for airbags applied to side-by-side machines.
As the UTV Driver notes, these patents aren't exactly new; they actually date back to 2021, but only as of late have come to light. Yet they have ultra-modern tech, like a wraparound steering wheel airbag and a curtain airbag that deploys from the roof rail area.
UTV Driver also notes that the airbags mentioned herein are waterproofed in a way modern airbags haven't been, which means these are designed with the side-by-side application in mind.
Long story short, this is newfound and never-before-applied tech that we'd love to see in the UTV space. Here's to hoping it actually happens.
Ross hosts The Hooniverse Podcast. He has been in the off-road world since he was a kid riding in the back of his dad’s YJ Wrangler. He works in marketing by day and in his free time contributes to Hooniverse, AutoGuide, and ATV.com, and in the past has contributed to UTV Driver, ATV Rider, and Everyday Driver. Ross drives a 2018 Lexus GX460 that is an ongoing build project featured on multiple websites and the podcast.
More by Ross Ballot
![Derek Guetter Crashes During Backflip [video]](https://cdn-fastly.atv.com/media/2022/10/24/8744073/derek-guetter-crashes-during-backflip-video.jpg?size=350x220)
Comments
Join the conversation