Something that may be revolutionary.

On August 18 2012 04:25 Chill wrote:
I watched this earlier this week. I have several complaints with it.

1. Helmets are ugly. Well fuck, so is this thing. In the middle of summer, would you rather wear a breathing helmet or a scarf? Maybe it allows substantial airflow, but it certainly doesn't look like it. I guess it looks nicer, so it succeeds on that front, but I wouldn't necessarily say helmets are uncomfortable.

2. It adds an unnecessary control system. Even if the springing system is mechanical (no electronic controls), there is still a trigger. A helmet is static, it will never operate improperly if worn correctly. Having a triggering system complicates a simple existing solution. What if it's misaligned? What if it's worn backwards? What if it fires mistakenly while you're still riding? What if it doesn't fire?

Do you notice that they never removed the seatbelt when they designed the air bag? That's because all (good) safety systems have two independent controls. In systems that only have one, static safety controls are almost always prefered to dynamic ones because almost nothing can go wrong. If I throw foam at the ground, it's going to do what it always does. But this thing has added a new level of complexity.

3. You can reuse a helmet, like a seatbelt. I really doubt this thing is reuseable since it's charged.

As an engineer, I had the opposite reaction. This thing is contrived and is unnecessarily complex. You are replacing a safer, simpler design with a more complex, less effective one. Effectiveness is based on chance of success / failure. If this thing is proven to protect your head / neck better, then you could make a case for it.

On August 18 2012 04:48 Impervious wrote:

I don't find helmets uncomfortable at all either. But how about someone who wears a turban, or some other kind of head-dress, which will basically prevent a traditional bike helmet from working properly? This also could be used in many other ways - imagine the head rests of your car having these built in, so that if you get into an accident, they cover your head separately from the traditional airbag? How about the same for airplanes? Or how about for motorcyclists?


I fully agree here. I'm hoping that they don't have a single trigger function for this thing. Also, you can say the thing about a bicycle helmet being worn backwards, or being compromised in some other way without you being able to see it (such as defects in the foam material).


You aren't supposed to re-use a helmet after an accident. The foam material on the inside can become compromised from a single accident, and it is recommended to replace afterwards for that reason.


I know I'd like to see more information about this as well. This has already been certified as a safe helmet in the EU, so I'd have to assume that it has passed the same standardized tests that a traditional bicycle helmet has passed. It may not be as safe as a traditional helmet currently is, and it looks bulky, however, I'm sure that there will be significant improvements in the future, if this product catches on.