Autoblog

The safety-obsessed people over at Siemens VDO have developed a new system that, depending on the noise produced by a crash, will figure out the best way to deploy the airbags.

The Crash Impact Sound Sensor (CISS) is quicker on the draw than other systems (up to 15 milliseconds), and depending on the information it receives from the audio sensors, it can determine where the collision took place and the level of severity. In turn, the only airbags deployed would be the ones necessary to protect the affected passengers.

The system is particularly important to the vertically challenged, who have sustained serious injury when an airbag was deployed unnecessarily.

[Source: Siemens VDO via Autopia]

Though the proceedings in which Delphi is arguing for the right to terminate the contracts of over 33,000 workers is scheduled over a three-day period this week (Tuesday, Wednesday and tomorrow), it is much more likely the case will drag on for weeks because of the 34-person long witness list. The Detroit News reports that on the first day only the trial only made it through two witnesses and wasn't even done with the second as the day came to an end.

When the hearing is over, Judge Robert Drain will have 30 days to make a verdict. If he does grant Delphi the right to terminate its contracts, the bankrupt supplier has said it will not necessarily exercise that right, though it does give the company a clear and perhaps indomitable advantage in contract negotiations with the unions.

We'll keep an eye on the proceedings as they move painfully slow towards a conclusion.

[Source: The Detroit News]

Photo Credit: Adam Rountree / Bloomberg News