Autonomous car airbags resemble witchetty grubs

German company ZF has revealed a new safety airbag configured for self-driving and autonomous cars… and it looks like Australia’s witchetty grub.

Designed to pop out from the side of occupants' seats, the new ‘Advanced Centre Airbag Concept’ was created to provide better head protection in the event of a crash.

And the new airbag is claimed to be future-proof as, according to Frank Laakmann, engineering director for occupant safety at ZF TRW, autonomous cars will require a rethink of safety systems.

Currently, with seat belts buckled, vehicle occupants are locked into one spot, which makes positioning airbags relatively straightforward. But this will change.

As the design of autonomous vehicles alters the way occupants sit within a vehicle – able to swivel around and even move their seat about – safety systems need to be re-thought accordingly.

"The introduction of automated vehicles means occupant protection systems will evolve, not disappear," Mr Laakmann explained.

Self-driving cars will crash, it's inevitable. When they do, advanced airbags like this one will need to be adaptable to the various occupant positions, providing protection wherever people are sitting and whichever way they are facing.

"The fact that automated vehicles will encounter manual vehicles in traffic for some time is a factor, but the main driver will be new interior concepts. Giving occupants more freedom requires new airbag concepts and seatbelts with additional functionalities," Mr Laakmann revealed.

Autonomous cars are expected to usher in a new era of occupant safety, able to deliver far higher levels predictability on the road than most human drivers. But they won't be crash-proof.

Safety systems will be just as important as they are today – they'll just have to adapt.

Who knows what other forms we'll see…could the wombat knee airbag be next?