Some car manufacturers like Volvo have been looking into putting airbags on the outside of their cars to protect pedestrians in the event of an accident and now it would appear that the Google self driving cars may come with this feature.
A new patent for Google driverless cars has recently been awarded to Google for a system which is made of airbags that are on the outside of the vehicle.
The system is apparently made up of external airbags and bumpers made out of a material similar to memory foam, the reason this has been done is to stop the airbag pushing the pedestrian in the opposite direction and then injuring themselves on the road or the pavement.
The airbag would apparently cushion the passenger on impact and then the memory foam bumper would take the force of the impact, which should in theory reduce potential injuries should an accident occur.
So far there have only been two recorded accidents with Google self driving cars, one where the car was being driven in manual mode and the other when another car drove into the back of the vehicle.
Google has yet to reveal any details on when they plan to launch their self driving cars, the company is currently testing out the vehicles.
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