We’ve seen inflatable airbags to help protect skiers during an avalanche but now Dainese has devised an airbag system to help protect downhill ski racers in case of a crash. The company’s new D-AIR Ski Project could even be in place by the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics. This safety system features three integrated accelerometers and gyroscopes plus a GPS unit and an onboard microprocessor to detect any sudden movements.
Together this system can detect a crash and deploy the airbag to protect the rider’s neck, shoulder and collarbone and the full process can take just 45 milliseconds. Given how fast skiers travel it is clear they’d need something even faster and the D-AIR system looks like it could help skiers stay safe on those very fast slopes.
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While the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games won’t be another 15 months the US Bobsled Team can look forward to making their cool runnings in luxury style as they’ll be using BMW-made sleds. While there was much of an uproar about where some Olympic equipment used by the U.S. team at the recent summer games was made, in this case the BMW DesignworksUSA group is responsible for creating the bobsled.