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ridiculously big airbag cow catchers for self driving cars.

Some are concerned about who a self driving car should run over. No one! in the bumper they could have an airbag version of a cow-catcher that plows people sideways if the car meets their body.
 
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I am imagining that self driving cars could plausibly be 1000 or 10,000 times better at not hitting people. That's great but for the others they could have a giant airbag in the bumper that inflates to a > shape to plow people to the sides reducing damage.
beanangel, Nov 20 2018

Deployed hood https://www.nissan-...ERVIEW/puehfpp.html
[bs0u0155, Nov 20 2018]

External Airbags https://jalopnik.co...ar-safet-1759180676
[bs0u0155, Nov 20 2018]

Switl external airbag My own prior art, which solves the problem of throwing people into other objects, with a link to some more prior art [notexactly, Dec 03 2018]

[link]






       // to plow people to the sides //   

       ... straight into the path of oncoming vehicles, or street furniture, or fruit carts, or piles of empty cardboard boxes (actually not a bad option), or two people pushing a rack of clothes, or carrying a sheet of glass ...
8th of 7, Nov 20 2018
  

       As a bonus, if it were installed back-to-front, it could be used to collect pedestrians.
MaxwellBuchanan, Nov 20 2018
  

       You could sell that idea to Uber ...   

       "Gorblimey, you'll never guess 'oo I 'ad in the back of me cab the other day ... "
8th of 7, Nov 20 2018
  

       External airbags are in the oven, so to speak <link>. There are also manufacturers who are considering "deploying" various panels, that is using explosives to move the bumper, bonnet/hood forward or up before impact leaving the panel suspended on a shock absorber. This would add a couple of inches of give to the impact zone that can make a big difference.
bs0u0155, Nov 20 2018
  

       As car packaging space becomes ever so much more ridiculous, at a certain point, it would be much more efficient to have the pedestrians walk around in giant zorbs. They could be 'assisted' into the subway tunnels with the fun of a live game of billiards.
RayfordSteele, Nov 20 2018
  
      
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