World's First Child Car Seats With Airbags Launched In The UK

Car safety is always a priority for us at CNB and it's always great to see more technologies and innovations coming through from manufacturers that improve safety in a vehicle. Now, in what would be a big push towards toddler safety in cars, car seat specialists Maxi-Cosi has launched the world's first child car seat with built-in airbags, and the seat is available for purchase in the UK. The child car seat comes with two built-in airbags located in the shoulder pads of the harness that are deployed in case of a crash. The company says the new seat has shown major improvements in protecting the child in the event of a crash.

Maxi-Cosi is a car seat maker and the airbag child seat is part of the company's AxissFix Air model line-up, which is also the company's flagship range. The airbag child car seat has been developed in collaboration with mobile airbag company - Helite.

(The Maxi-Cosi airbag child car seats promise improved protection to the head and neck by 55 per cent)

The airbag child car seat is suitable for children between 61 and 105 cm (2 feet and 3 feet, 5-inche) tall and gets a host of features including 360-degree rotating base for easy installation, ISOFIX tethering hooks, and two small airbags that are located in the shoulder pads. The system is connected to a seat-mounted sensor that gets triggered in case of a crash, and inflates in the airbags in just 0.05 seconds.

Maxi-Cosi says the airbag child car seats when tested compared to standard versions, have shown a reduced amount of force on the child's head and neck vertebrae by a substantial 55 per cent. The company has been experimenting with car safety and airbags for a while now and got the idea from other innovations in the world of safety, like airbag jackets for motorcyclists.

(The Maxi-Cosi airbag Child car seats are priced at $783 or about Rs. 51,000)

The new airbag-equipped child car seats certainly seem to be the future and while Maxi-Cosi are the first ones to introduce the same, we do hope other manufacturers take note of this. That said, the Maxi-Cosi AxissFix Air child car seats is priced at $783 (around Rs. 51,000), which makes it quite steep. The company hasn't announced plans to expand its airbag child car seat line-up just yet, but it is working on making the technology more affordable.