My understanding is that the concern is that the passenger airbag can do serious damage to a child sitting in the front. You seem to be suggesting this is no longer the case. What has changed that now makes this safe?.
Airbags are triggered electronically, not mechanically right? Then it should be possible to disable the passenger airbag only when a child car seat is attached.
They already do that. There are weight and position sensors in the passenger seat that will disable the airbag if it detects an object under certain weight and height parameters. The airbag won’t go off if the seat is empty either. If you want a simple example, put a 40lb box of paper or books in the passenger seat and buckle the seat belt. You’ll see that the light on the dash will indicate the passenger airbag is off. I could describe how the system works in more detail, but if your genuinely interested, Im sure there are some good resources on the internet that explain it better than I would.
Aren't you meant to install child seats facing backwards, if you install them in the front passenger seat? Thus the mass of the seat itself shields the child from the airbag.
backwards-facing car seats for small children are way worse if an airbag triggers, because the airbag basically directly hits it and fires the seat backwards. They should only ever be used if the airbag is deactivated.
