With increasing numbers of road accidents, should all cars that left the assembly line be fitted with at least one Supplementary Restraint System (SRS)-Airbag as a standard equipment?

Edit: You can add related stuffs about this topic too...

I don't see why not...

If so...why are there still so many cars plying the road without airbags? Some car manufacturers doesn't even offer airbag as an optional item in their car list...

It never going to happen as production costs would be raised and no car company is going have them as standard when they can make a profit on it as an extra.
You could try and pass a law saying they have to have these but it wouldn't be popular and would be impractical.
In countries that produce large amounts of cars, like America and Germany, such a law would be political suicide.

But most consumers are willing to pay more for a safer car..



Why is it impractical when it is among the msot effective method to save someone's life during accidents.



But at least all cars from Germany is fitted with airbags as standard equipments. But how come when the law is passed, it will be a political suicide? What is the relevant behind saving road accident victims with politic?

Thats my point, there is no reason for car companys to make Air bags standard when they can make more money by making it an extra.


Production costs would increase and not all cars have the space required to store them.


Didn't know Germans had them as standard...
In the US it would be very bad politically (suicide may have been a bit much.)
If such a law was passed then, as I said, production casts would increase and some models would have to be discontinued. Higher production cost means less money for wages so there will probably be lay-off's. This means unemployment goes up. Also, the cost of cars will go up as well, though not enough to save everyone's jobs. This means less cars will be sold. The economy has just taken to punches.
From what I have gathered Michigan makes a lot of these cars so this law is going to hurt them the most. They aren't going to be pleased with the party that did this and, if I'm not mistaken, Michigan holds a lot of electoral votes and now that they have been screwed by the Gov. they're going to take a lot of convincing before they vote for which ever party put forward the law. That'll make a general election a lot easier for the other party.

The Industry will come up with something on their own. Get some celebs talking about it and make car safety the big thing and the Car industry will cater to them.

_{(Excuse any poor logic, mis-infomation and spelling errors, it's 3am.)}

Most cars that came off the assembly line has a hollow steering wheel that can be put in airbags... But what puzzles me is why airbags are not offered in some cars although the steering wheel are designed to be equipped with one... Therefore not much money will be invested in R&D..



All BMW, Mercedes, Audi, Volkswagen and Porsche has airbags as standard equipment even in their entry level cars!



In a technological advanced decade today, how expensive an airbag will cost? Wikipedia even quoted that an average airbag only cost about USD400 at industrial price. Every car can be equipped with airbags. Just change the steering wheels, throw in a couple of wiring kits and chips and that all... It is not necessary to R&D a completely new car with airbag that is based on the old car...

A note on production costs - completely unverified, but probably true (I ain't going to do the research on this either)

Over the years, costs of cars have gone up, workers salaries have gone up, quality of car parts have gone down. My understanding is that the worker salaries have been more than covered by both the reduction in quality and increased prices to allow for ample surplus (increasing stockholder's equity, cash reserves, etc...)

Given this as a general priciple for american cars at least, increases in safety are only done to be in compliance with the law or increase market share.

What does this mean? No new safety standards provided unless we legislate it or demand for autos without the safety standards goes down (or conversely demand for safety standards goes up evidenced by everyone buying volvo's).

Personally, I want the option to have or not have certain extras including safety options. Unless it's going to lower my insurance and the type of driving actually warrents the type of safety standard, I don't want to pay for it. It's all a game of managed risk out there on the roadways and I'm hoping I win big

So all fairly expensive cars by the average then, even the cheapest ones

Airbags only does its work during collisions... Speed apparently is the greatest factor in accidents. Since "SPEED KILLS", why country like US commonly have cars equipped with such large engine that churns out huge horsepower?