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From: ted@imsvax.UUCP (Ted Holden)
Newsgroups: net.auto
Subject: airbags
Message-ID: <493@imsvax.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 5-Jan-86 13:46:40 EST
Article-I.D.: imsvax.493
Posted: Sun Jan  5 13:46:40 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 7-Jan-86 03:42:22 EST
Organization: IMS Inc, Rockville MD
Lines: 31


     Since air bags may someday be standard items on many if not all of
the cars being sold in America, there are several questions which
potential owners of such vehicles should consider.  These include:

1.  Since these devices will in all likelihood be microprocessor
controlled, and the cars owned longer than 3 years average, the first
question is "How many microcomputers have I ever seen go three years and
never break or need repairs?".  Of course, when a PC breaks, you simply
send it out for repairs, no big deal;  a problem with the microprocessor
controlling your airbag would, of course, be a whole lot worse than
that.

2.  Your PC doesn't sit out in the cold and get rained on like your car
does;  is there any reason for thinking it would break LESS often if it
did?

3.  In view of the first two questions, and noting that the average American
driver isn't terribly good even WITHOUT being pinned into his seat and
blinded, is there any particular reason to to think he would function
better or even as well when he was?

4.  Aside from accidental problems such as these, is there any reason to
think that a particularly large, strong, and evil-minded ten-year-old
(such as I was 30 years ago) couldn't simply run up to cars stopped at a
light and kick their bumpers, and laugh gleefully at the poor idiots
trapped inside?

5.  I could think of a lot more such questions.  The only one that
really counts is "How do we stop this kind of crap?".  Or, failing that,
how do we disable the things?