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from the corporate-airbags-making-defective-air-bags dept.
Japanese airbag manufacturer Takata has doubled estimates of the number of vehicles affected by an airbag defect to 34 million. Moisture can infiltrate the defective airbags, which causes the chemical propellant inside to ignite too quickly, breaking the inflator and sending "metal shards into the passenger cabin that can lead to serious injury or death." The airbags have been linked to six deaths and over 100 injuries.
The NHTSA's Recalls Spotlight site asks owners to use a VIN search tool for up to several weeks after the announcement of the recall. Models affected include cars from Acura/Honda (5.5 million), BMW (765,000), Chrysler/Dodge/Ram (2.88 million), Ford (538,977), Infiniti/Nissan (1,091,000), Toyota/Lexus/Pontiac (1,514,000), Mazda (330,000), Mitsubishi (11,985), Saab, and Subaru (17,516).
(Numbers are subject to change.)
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 21 2015, @08:51AM
The side impact ones might be useful if you don't have a habit of wearing a helmet while driving.
I don't see the point of the front ones if you wear decent seatbelts.
If you happen to be holding the steering wheel "wrong"[1] US strength[2] steering wheel airbags can break your arms/hands. Thanks but no thanks, I might still need my arms to break out of the car after the airbag goes off.
[1] where your arms/hands get hit by the airbag (which is like positions other than hands below 3 o-clock to 9 o-clock)
[2] Some sources say US airbags are more powerful because US people tend to be heavier and often don't wear seatbelts.