Why You Probably Shouldn’t DIY A Car Airbag

A DIY airbag experiment by an Australian maker explores whether a car airbag can be replicated using low-tech components: an inertial fuel cut-off switch as the crash sensor, a compressed-gas cylinder instead of a pyrotechnic gas generator, and a pillowcase as the bag. The experiment reveals why commercial airbags use gas generators — they produce large volumes of gas far more quickly and compactly than alternatives. The conclusion is that off-the-shelf airbag units are cheap, well-tested, and essentially impossible to beat with DIY methods, making any real-world DIY airbag a dangerous proposition.