Ford Unveils First Inflatable Seatbelts

They are planned for use in the rear seats. Interesting concept and the amount of bruising and such that someone gets from the seat belts along in an accident maybe it's a good thing.

I'm wondering though how easy they will be to damage, what is the replacement cost if one is damage and not in an accident, what happens when the family pet chews them up? Good concept but have my reservations on whether I like the idea or not. Like i have a choice anyway on whether used or not. Next will be over the head inflatables for roll overs. They seem to have been migrating which might include in the future the intire interior of the car.

Ford unveils industry's first* production inflatable seat belts [w/VIDEO] — Autoblog

I heard today about them but didn't watch anything... I gotta get a clear pic in my head before watching...

personally I think they should look at wider belts before this...I think a LOT of the economics driving the sidecurtain/seatbelt retractor/airbag, now air belts, developments is that in a older car if they deploy its totalled due to cost of replacing all the explosive bits...

wonder how long till someone figures out the shelf life of a 1990 airbag is x amount of years, after which they could need replaced for $afety reasons at a grand apiece or something like that...or wonder if after 10-20-xx years Zinc azide becomes unstable like TNT or something...could happpen.

when I was in Japan the guy that was taking us around when asked 'why no older cars' said after so many years, a car has to be recertified or something, and its cheaper to just buy a new one. could happpen here eventually, especially with todays tendency to follow californias ideas

Belts see a lot of abuse too.
Wonder how an airbag in it would actually hold up?
Good idea but has drawbacks too.
Something to watch though.

Rich Sr.

Now I can drive even faster and more recklessly, heck I can't get hurt with all this safety equipment.
Perhaps the Feds should mandate a drivers safety course be given to all drivers once a year.

Constantly getting closer

Not knowing the life expectancy and cost of replacement I can imagine it's another way to keep older cars off the road. Becoming an even more disposable civilization. Build nothing that lasts and when that doesn't work build something that is too costly to replace so cheaper to dump it and get new.

I bought a new microwave because the glass plate in my almost new micro got broke. New plate was $75, it was cheaper to just get another microwave.
Bet there are many more examples out there!

If products were made to last like many years ago, many more people would be out of jobs.
Coming out of the forties, there was very little competition and very few luxury products on the market at the time. Appliances could be made to last for ten or fifteen years and the factories could stay busy. Today we are in a global economy and many more countries are producing just about everything imaginable both cheap and unreliable. It keeps people working and the money flowing round and round. Simple economics.

Like an expiration date on products. They should put it right on the sticker; 2015 Ford Mustang. Expiration date: 1-23-2020.

V8, that's a good one! LOL I guess it has it's advantages and disadvantages. We have to have stuff that doesn't last but then have the problem of where to put all the stuff we toss out. A viscious circle.