New Nissan hood to soften pedestrian collisions

[Guchi_Jnr]

Nissan Motor Co. said Thursday it has developed a new engine hood safety system to help protect pedestrians' heads in the event of a collision.

The pop-up engine hood will be built into the new Skyline model to be released this fall in Japan, and its use could be extended to other Nissan models as well, the carmaker said.

When a sensor in the front bumper detects a collision with a pedestrian, a control unit gauges the intensity of the impact and immediately determines whether to raise the back of the engine hood by about 10 cm.


An experiment shows Nissan Motor Co.'s new pop-up engine hood safety system that helps to protect a pedestrian's head in a collision.

Will that even help?? 

[mini*wheat]

The real question is...

This is actually necessary?

[solar2504]

It looks like it'll stop the pedestrian from hitting the windsheild, that's definately a plus.

[ebc]

hehe, I'd love to see them advertising this feature on tv

[nop]

Nissan car will break legs and internal organs, but face and head will look nice.
"You look fine, I guess I will be on my way then.  Take care."

[Asmodai]

One more safety feature to add to the list. Hopefully it won't come up much, but I think people will be glad it's there when it does.

If it lessens the chance of catastrophic injury to the pedestrian, it might also help out the owner by lowering their car insurance premiums.

[mumm-ra]

Other manufacturers have been doing this too.

[JFC]

Will that even help?? 

Personally I doubt it.  Given the typical speeds people drive at, I somehow get the feeling that an extra 10 centimeters isn't going to make much of a difference.  It's several hundred pounds of metal that is hitting the pedestrian, after all.

[chokkan 2]

I really don't think it'll help much ....  even if you got hit by a sponge at 100km/hr, I still think you gonna have a lot internal injuries ....

[StreakInTheSky]

yeah you're still going to get hurt and possibly be killed, but it could help prevent people from hitting the windshield of the car and could possibly save a life. 10cm doesn't sound like alot, but by moving it in a higher angle, it will absorb some energy from the impact. Besides, I don't think most people are actually hit at full speed, as I'd assume most people would hit the breaks if they see someone standing in front of them.

If it's an extra feature, I really don't think it would be worth paying for it. But it's not bad as a standard feature.