Front Passenger Seat Airbag Warning

[Xminus6]

I’m creating a new thread on this because I consider it to be a pretty important safety issue.

In my Gravity with both of my teenage daughters in the front passenger seat, the airbag is disabled alarmingly often while they’re sitting in the seat. If they shift their weight enough to unload the sensor, which I presume to be in the seat cushion, the car will indicate that Passenger Airbag 2 is disabled. On a drive yesterday just having my daughter slouch down and scoot her butt forward on the seat deactivated the airbag for a considerable amount of time (maybe a minute or so at highway speeds).

The tuning on seat occupancy needs to be updated to make some reasonable assumptions (ie. if there was someone in the seat and the car hasn’t stopped or door opened since then that the seat is obviously still occupied). In any case, I think we can all agree that a false positive for seat occupancy is preferable to a false negative when it comes to airbag deployment.

 

[borski]

In any case, I think we can all agree that a false positive for seat occupancy is preferable to a false negative when it comes to airbag deployment.

That is actually not as true as you'd think. If there is a child or young adult sitting in the seat, you do not want the airbags deploying, as it can kill them. That is specifically why there is a 65lb or so weight limit for airbag sensors to deploy.

The regulatory requirement is FMVSS 208, which I'm sure these meet, but you can definitely ask service to check it out. If you seat a child in a rear facing safety seat in the front passenger seat with an active airbag, for example, which is legal in some jurisdictions... they can die if the airbag deploys.

That's why the occupancy sensors exist at all; otherwise, they would just deploy every time there was a collision.

Anyway, all of this is to say that slouching forward and removing the weight from a seat will turn off the passenger airbags in pretty much any car, as that is the law.

As an example, from Tesla's manual:

"To help ensure an occupant in the front passenger seat can be accurately classified, the passenger must:

• Wear a seat belt.
• Sit upright on the center of the seat cushion, with shoulders resting against the seat back and legs extended comfortably in front with feet on the floor.
• Remain positioned on the seat cushion and not lift their weight off the seat (for example, by pushing their feet against the floor or pressing on the center console or armrest to lift up).
• Never wear thick, wet, or bulky clothing (such as ski wear or padded clothing)."

Emphasis mine.

 

[Xminus6]

That is actually not as true as you'd think. If there is a child or young adult sitting in the seat, you do not want the airbags deploying, as it can kill them. That is specifically why there is a 65lb or so weight limit for airbag sensors to deploy.

The regulatory requirement is FMVSS 208, which I'm sure these meet, but you can definitely ask service to check it out. If you seat a child in a rear facing safety seat in the front passenger seat with an active airbag, for example, which is legal in some jurisdictions... they can die if the airbag deploys.

That's why the occupancy sensors exist at all; otherwise, they would just deploy every time there was a collision.

Anyway, all of this is to say that slouching forward and removing the weight from a seat will turn off the passenger airbags in pretty much any car, as that is the law.

As an example, from Tesla's manual:

"To help ensure an occupant in the front passenger seat can be accurately classified, the passenger must:

• Wear a seat belt.
• Sit upright on the center of the seat cushion, with shoulders resting against the seat back and legs extended comfortably in front with feet on the floor.
• Remain positioned on the seat cushion and not lift their weight off the seat (for example, by pushing their feet against the floor or pressing on the center console or armrest to lift up).
• Never wear thick, wet, or bulky clothing (such as ski wear or padded clothing)."

Emphasis mine.

Good point about the rear facing car seat. But I have to disagree that the airbag is turned off in most cars with the same amount of shifting. This wasn’t an extreme amount of contortion my kids were doing. It was a pretty normal adjustment of posture that they’ve done thousands of times in our other cars without affecting the occupancy sensor.

 

[borski]

Good point about the rear facing car seat. But I have to disagree that the airbag is turned off in most cars with the same amount of shifting. This wasn’t an extreme amount of contortion my kids were doing. It was a pretty normal adjustment of posture that they’ve done thousands of times in our other cars without affecting the occupancy sensor.

I'm not arguing it may not be a little overly sensitive; I have no idea. I'm just saying it meets the legal requirements, and there's good reason for it to not assume someone is 'still sitting there' if the damage caused by being hit by an airbag 'too close' or at the wrong angle would cause more harm than it would protect from.

I don't know; I don't design automotive safety mechanisms, heh.

I was only commenting on the part of your post I quoted, which is that I don't think we can agree that a false positive for seat occupancy is preferable to a false negative when it comes to airbag deployment.

 

[Bunnylebowski]

Good point about the rear facing car seat. But I have to disagree that the airbag is turned off in most cars with the same amount of shifting. This wasn’t an extreme amount of contortion my kids were doing. It was a pretty normal adjustment of posture that they’ve done thousands of times in our other cars without affecting the occupancy sensor.

I’d ask service to check out your specific vehicle, bring your kid and show them the ways in which they sit can de-activate the sensor, maybe there’s a calibration issue or you need a new seat or sensor. In the history of this forum I only recall one other Lucid vehicle have a passenger seat airbag off alert issue.

 

[borski]

I’d ask service to check out your specific vehicle, bring your kid and show them the ways in which they sit can de-activate the sensor, maybe there’s a calibration issue or you need a new seat or sensor. In the history of this forum I only recall one other Lucid vehicle have a passenger seat airbag off alert issue.

To be clear, that wasn’t an issue with the vehicle; it happened for that passenger regardless of which Air they sat in, but nobody else had the issue, as it was the way in which they sat (with their butt near fully on the thigh support rather than the seat bottom, slouched down) that didn’t trigger the sensor.

They replaced the seat, etc., and it didn’t make a difference, because it was how the passenger was sitting that did.

I’m not arguing right, wrong, or otherwise - just stating what happened.

Definitely have it checked out by service, but an easy test would be to have your kid hop in another Gravity, like at the service center, and see if the same thing happens.

Even if it does, it may warrant some calibration or something!

But I just wanted to be clear this wasn’t like a recurring issue or something.

 

[Bunnylebowski]

Oh yeah I had forgotten the specifics haha, that was a weird one.

 

[Xminus6]

I’d ask service to check out your specific vehicle, bring your kid and show them the ways in which they sit can de-activate the sensor, maybe there’s a calibration issue or you need a new seat or sensor. In the history of this forum I only recall one other Lucid vehicle have a passenger seat airbag off alert issue.

I have the car in service now and just told them about it. I was able to get a service appointment the day after I called the service center (for you Bay Area folks, San Jose seems to be more available) so I took the opportunity. My driver’s side mirror doesn’t fold/unfold consistently. Annoyingly it was folding, but not unfolding, so it wasn’t in a position where I could drive with it. I was doing it manually for a couple days until it stopped moving altogether. It wasn’t a software issue as I could hear the motors trying to move the mirror. When I moved it manually there was a disconcerting click like the plastic was meeting some resistance.

I took it in for that, the second row squeaking seat and that airbag warning calibration.

 

[yadaBaga]

I have the car in service now and just told them about it. I was able to get a service appointment the day after I called the service center (for you Bay Area folks, San Jose seems to be more available) so I took the opportunity. My driver’s side mirror doesn’t fold/unfold consistently. Annoyingly it was folding, but not unfolding, so it wasn’t in a position where I could drive with it. I was doing it manually for a couple days until it stopped moving altogether. It wasn’t a software issue as I could hear the motors trying to move the mirror. When I moved it manually there was a disconcerting click like the plastic was meeting some resistance.

I took it in for that, the second row squeaking seat and that airbag warning calibration.

That driver side mirror not unfolding is my only nagging issue. They couldn’t repro it last time. Now I have videos! Curious what they diagnose to be the issue for you and whether there are any parts shortages for the fixes. Am scheduled for early Nov to send to SC.

 

[Xminus6]

That driver side mirror not unfolding is my only nagging issue. They couldn’t repro it last time. Now I have videos! Curious what they diagnose to be the issue for you and whether there are any parts shortages for the fixes. Am scheduled for early Nov to send to SC.

There wasn’t really a diagnosis. They just replaced it. Took about a week for my Quantum Gray one. Not sure if the color would affect parts availability for it since I don’t think they’re replacing just the internals but probably just a whole cluster.