Vehicle: Car: Air Bag
AirBag RipCord   (+6, -1)  [vote for, against]
Stop carjackers and cover them in that mildly toxic dust.

Next time your car gets jacked, pull the ripcord, give up your car and the airbag will deploy the next time the accelerator pedal is pressed. I got this idea yesterday when I was riding in the car of my employment agency and saw a cord dangling from the steering column. I thought, WIBNI that would deploy the airbag the moment you pulled it. Then I thought of a security use for it. It could also have rapid fire with a frequency response from 1-8 Hz.
-- Amishman35, May 15 2002

I like the term 'mildly toxic'.
-- phoenix, May 15 2002


Croissant for "rapid fire" in your idea!
-- reensure, May 15 2002


OK, it's great for that carjacking scenario. What happens when your five-year-old gets to playing around in the car and gives the cord a yank (or button a push -- whatever) to activate the system? Next morning you start to go to work and POOF!

If you say that there's an airbag disable button somewhere, then your carjacker will likely know about it and defeat the whole point of this idea.
-- BigBrother, May 16 2002


You shouldn't allow your five-year old to play around in the car if it's that dangerous, BigBrother.

I like your thought process Amishman35 but wouldn't it be much better to see the look on the 'jackers faces if you pulled the cord and the whole car fell to pieces? (Obviously there'd need to be some sort of recovery service for this).
-- DrBob, May 16 2002


flashback to the end-of-the-carchase scene in The Blues Brothers.....
-- rbl, May 16 2002


Great idea but there's a few problems. Firstly, why hurt the criminal? Instead, why not have the ripcord send your car's tags/info to the police AND deploy the airbag, and perhaps disable the car. Also, a ripcord is too easy to accidentally pull. Perhaps a button with a flip up cover would be in order. GREAT IDEA!
-- Bohemianqueen, May 16 2002


Instead of having the trigger in the car, have it be activated by remote. That way you can do it as the car is speeding off...
-- Jeremi, May 16 2002


On the keychain fob, but harder to push accidentally than the "panic" button that sets off the car alarm.
-- mwburden, May 17 2002



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