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American Morning
Air Bags a Bust?
Aired October 01, 2002 - 09:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Another story to keep an eye on if you're on the road. They're supposed to be on the cutting edge of car safety technology, so-called smart bags, and starting next year, they will be standard equipment in all new cars. U.S. automakers, though, contend that these air bags are not smart, but in fact dangerous, and even potentially deadly. The National Highway Traffic Administration disagrees. Who can you trust? What do you believe? And what do you need to know about these bags if indeed they are in your automobile?
Jean Jennings, editor in chief of "Automobile" magazine joins us live from Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Good to have you, Jean. Good morning.
JEAN JENNINGS, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, "AUTOMOBILE" MAGAZINE: Good morning, Bill. How are you?
HEMMER: I'm doing just fine, thank you much.
JENNINGS: Weighing in on this, how smart are they?
HEMMER: You know, they can be very, very smart if you're willing to pay the price.
JENNINGS: But right now, they basically can tell if a lightweight or heavyweight person is in the bag and will come out of the chute in two different phases, a sort of -- none of them like a roll of Charmin, however.
HEMMER: Yes, you can say that again, especially those who've experienced it. What you're suggesting then is that the technology enables it to essentially blow up at different speeds, depending on the impact and depending on the size of the person?
JENNINGS: Exactly. Now a really smart bag could have as many as 10 sensors and could tell if you're in place of the seat or out of place. It can tell the severity of the collision. It could tell how big or small the person is. It can really do a number of things. That technology is a lot more expensive and it's not altogether developed. The Germans are further along in that technology than the Americans are.
I think the real news is, car crashes are not safe.
HEMMER: Go ahead.
JENNINGS: Well, they're not safe. You know, I mean, people want to eat hamburgers and not get fat. They want to smoke cigarettes and they don't want to get lung cancer, and they want to drive a 4,000 pound machine with hundreds of moving parts, basically connected to the earth by four little patches of rubber the size of an envelope, and when they crash, they don't want to get hurt.
HEMMER: Jean, why is the opposition then?
JENNINGS: You know, the opposition from whom?
HEMMER: The automakers and those who say that, indeed, not so smart after all. What's the rub with them?
JENNINGS: I would trust the people who are getting sued. And, frankly, car companies are sued for not having air bags when they didn't, they've getting sued for having airbags, they're getting sued for not having smart airbags, and now they're being sued for not having smart enough air bags.
HEMMER: Listen, we have a few things we want to put up here, the smart bag tricks is what we call them, the automakers who oppose this. They're saying essentially, Jean, that children can be mistaken for adults by extra weight of car seats. Small adults who recline and prop legs on the dash can be mistaken for children. Humidity and water on seat can cause a malfunction. When you look at these, how do you size it up?
JENNINGS: Well, you know, we're not taking responsibility for the consequences. You know, we want our cars to be 100 percent safe. We don't want -- we want to be able to crash and have nothing go wrong. We want the world to be perfect. Frankly, the technology is just not there yet, and when people want something, they want it now. If they don't have it, they want to sue. Call me an apologist.
HEMMER: Not a problem, Jean. We'll call you whatever you like.
Thank you, Jean. Jean Jennings, editor-in-chief of "Automobile" magazine. Thank you, much.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired October 1, 2002 - 09:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Another story to keep an eye on if you're on the road. They're supposed to be on the cutting edge of car safety technology, so-called smart bags, and starting next year, they will be standard equipment in all new cars. U.S. automakers, though, contend that these air bags are not smart, but in fact dangerous, and even potentially deadly. The National Highway Traffic Administration disagrees. Who can you trust? What do you believe? And what do you need to know about these bags if indeed they are in your automobile?
Jean Jennings, editor in chief of "Automobile" magazine joins us live from Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Good to have you, Jean. Good morning.
JEAN JENNINGS, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, "AUTOMOBILE" MAGAZINE: Good morning, Bill. How are you?
HEMMER: I'm doing just fine, thank you much.
JENNINGS: Weighing in on this, how smart are they?
HEMMER: You know, they can be very, very smart if you're willing to pay the price.
JENNINGS: But right now, they basically can tell if a lightweight or heavyweight person is in the bag and will come out of the chute in two different phases, a sort of -- none of them like a roll of Charmin, however.
HEMMER: Yes, you can say that again, especially those who've experienced it. What you're suggesting then is that the technology enables it to essentially blow up at different speeds, depending on the impact and depending on the size of the person?
JENNINGS: Exactly. Now a really smart bag could have as many as 10 sensors and could tell if you're in place of the seat or out of place. It can tell the severity of the collision. It could tell how big or small the person is. It can really do a number of things. That technology is a lot more expensive and it's not altogether developed. The Germans are further along in that technology than the Americans are.
I think the real news is, car crashes are not safe.
HEMMER: Go ahead.
JENNINGS: Well, they're not safe. You know, I mean, people want to eat hamburgers and not get fat. They want to smoke cigarettes and they don't want to get lung cancer, and they want to drive a 4,000 pound machine with hundreds of moving parts, basically connected to the earth by four little patches of rubber the size of an envelope, and when they crash, they don't want to get hurt.
HEMMER: Jean, why is the opposition then?
JENNINGS: You know, the opposition from whom?
HEMMER: The automakers and those who say that, indeed, not so smart after all. What's the rub with them?
JENNINGS: I would trust the people who are getting sued. And, frankly, car companies are sued for not having air bags when they didn't, they've getting sued for having airbags, they're getting sued for not having smart airbags, and now they're being sued for not having smart enough air bags.
HEMMER: Listen, we have a few things we want to put up here, the smart bag tricks is what we call them, the automakers who oppose this. They're saying essentially, Jean, that children can be mistaken for adults by extra weight of car seats. Small adults who recline and prop legs on the dash can be mistaken for children. Humidity and water on seat can cause a malfunction. When you look at these, how do you size it up?
JENNINGS: Well, you know, we're not taking responsibility for the consequences. You know, we want our cars to be 100 percent safe. We don't want -- we want to be able to crash and have nothing go wrong. We want the world to be perfect. Frankly, the technology is just not there yet, and when people want something, they want it now. If they don't have it, they want to sue. Call me an apologist.
HEMMER: Not a problem, Jean. We'll call you whatever you like.
Thank you, Jean. Jean Jennings, editor-in-chief of "Automobile" magazine. Thank you, much.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
