Odds are, if you have ridden a bicycle for any amount of time, you have crashed. Crashes are fast, violent and chaotic events that leave you confused, and very glad to have a helmet. But what if there was another way of protecting your head? [Seth] decided to find out by taking a look at the Hövding airbag helmet.
The Hövding sits around your neck and looks somewhat akin to a neck pillow. It uses accelerometers situated in the fore and aft of the device to detect what it thinks is a crash. If a crash is detected, it will release a charge of compressed helium to inflate an airbag that wraps around the user’s head protecting a larger amount of the head then a traditional helmet. It also inflates around the wearer’s neck providing neck bracing in the impact further improving safety. The inflation process is incredibly fast and violent, very much akin to a car’s airbag. [Seth] demonstrated this on the process on two occasions to great effect, and to his amazement. While the idea of relying on computers to protect your head may sound ridiculous, studies have shown that the Hövding is safer than a regular helmet in certain situations.
Unfortunately the deployment process was irreversible making the product single use. Moreover, the Hövding would deploy in a crash regardless of if you hit your head or not. While Hövding offered a crash replacement at a discount, this would have created large amounts of e-waste.
However, the design is not perfect. During the product’s use there were 27 reports of the device not deploying — particularly when struck by a vehicle. More reports exist of the device deploying erroneously when it detected, for example, bending over too quickly as a crash. It could not meet the US safety standards for helmets and therefore it was never allowed to be sold in the US.
Hövding argued that it was a helmet equivalent and should be exempt from those standards to no avail. Studies suggested that it was not able to properly protect against sharp corner impacts similar to the anvil tests used by the United States as the airbag would bottom out in such circumstances.
Ultimate Hövding’s failure as a business came down to software. As the project continued, scope broadened and the device’s firmware grew more complicated. New features were introduced including USB-C charging, OTA updates and phone crash notifications. However, this also appears to have resulted in a firmware bug that caused some units to not deploy, and were potentially sold this way with Hövding’s knowledge. This led the Swedish Consumer Agency to temporarily ban the product along with a stop-use and recall on all Hövding 3s. While the ban was lifted by a judge, the damage was done, consumer trust in Hövding was gone and they filed for bankruptcy in 2023. Unfortunately, this left the existing customers of the Hövding high and dry, without a working app, update method, or crash replacement program.
Airbags are complex and amazing pieces of safety equipment, and while this is the first bike airbag recall we have covered, it’s not the first airbag recall we have seen.
Living in Stockholm when these were popular, it was clear that it was simply a class and style symbol. It was a way to distinguish yourself from the poor bikers, without actually driving a car.
€300, single-use, extremely complex and fragile. What a waste of resources.
And does not offer any protection from direct head strikes, for example, a low hanging branch or street sign jutting out a bit too far. Wiley Coyote safety gear that the Road Runner will soon take advantage of.
Even in the video, it activates AFTER his friend hits him in the back with a basketball. Not a problem with a solid helmet.
If you are hitting your head on signage you are in desperate need of a full crash helmet at all times… Its a static object you should have seen long long before you actually pass, so should have no trouble taking whatever degree of avoiding action is required. Branches are a little more acceptable as they can move so much, but the really mobile ones are also really quite thin and light – helmet not required, and might actually make a collision with one worse as most cycle helmets have lots of vent holes to catch on it.
IMO neither of those really should ever come up as ‘helmet needed’ in the real world for any cyclist actually fit to be on a bike outside of highly controlled environments. Where this airbag concept in the real world is going to be effective enough (as long as it triggers) to best the fixed helmets for protection in most accidents – the only thing it likely won’t fair so well with is your head coming down on a very sharp object – say into the corner of an open car door, but with the neck gripping it does, how much more wrapped around your head it is when deployed to cover a wider impact angle, and the much greater degree of crumple to absorb any more distributed impact slowly…
All bike helmets are ‘single use’.
The question is what defines a use.
Stupid expensive bikes have had the status symbol thing covered for many decades.
That and the branded tour de frog team spandex the shell heads like to wear while LARPing.
Love it!
Hope they catch on so much we can see them accidentally go off in future Adam Sandler movies.
It’s a total shame that they had to go bankrupt. I just loved them and my wife had hers activate in a dangerous but non accident situation. Great product, overall great design. Stoked that the assets were not picked up for a revival…
Regular bike helmets are also single use if they are impacted.
Yeah, I guess the distinction is around the incidents that could involve impacts but eventually don’t. It is a curious idea to plan to get into so many near misses that that is a big issue.
But they cost 10x less. Heck around here they give them away free if you attend a free road safety seminar.
Yes indeed, I agree that this airbag helmet is stupid. But have seen seen wayyyyy too many sketchy looking bike helmets in thrift stores and such.
People don’t know that even if it takes minor or unnoticible damage you can’t rely on it like you could before.
My best friend’s life was saved by a helmet in an accident that unfortunately left her with paralysis (but still alive), so I am very pro helmet safety.
Dumb techno solutions are dumb, just wear a good helmet properly folks <3
“My best friend’s life was saved by a helmet in an accident”
Was it a bike helmet and a bike accident? According to cyclehelmets.org, such claims are usually not true. Even if the helmet broke, all it means is that it failed.
https://www.cyclehelmets.org/1209.html
That website’s entire purpose is to “prove” helmets are unnecessary. I’m not going to trust it’s selection criteria for it’s references.
I’ve never worn a bicycle helmet and this one-use device that may not even deploy wouldn’t convince me either.
Not sure I can trust a man to tell us about his inflatable helmet when he doesn’t know his balls :)
That was clearly a basketball not a football thrown at him!
That thumbnail from the video sure reminded me of the minions with white helmets in Spaceballs, LOL
Why would an airbag need software updates? Why would an airbag need an app? Why do we keep seeing this same story play out over and over again?
At least they didn’t charge a subscription this time.
https://hackaday.com/2021/05/18/do-you-really-own-it-motorcycle-airbag-requires-additional-purchase-to-inflate/
As they collect data on actual cases, true positives, false positives and false negatives, they can improve the deployment trigger signals for to help ensure it goes off at the right time.
Why would God need a starship?
I dunno about rapidly deploying airbags near the head. Those things can inflate with considerable force; like an impact in and of itself. We found that out with vehicular airbags.
automotive airbags inflate with an explosive sodium azide charge. They rapidly inflate and then deflate as they absorb impact forces.
There is no explosion with these. Think of them more like a helmet shaped balloon. They just rapidly inflate with a helium cartridge, The force potential is not at all comparable to an automotive airbag.
Good tip, don’t try to use this to launch something on the next holiday.
Use a car steering wheel airbag for pyro fun.
Beware, the range is more than you expect.
A car steering wheel airbag can launch a bowling ball a good 100 ft with bounces and the right angle.
Best not to be there when the ball goes through the window.
When I saw this, Brian Wells was the first thing that came to mind.
Based on the description of events in the article it sounds like it’s nowhere near a tragedy that they failed and more like a company getting rightfully destroyed.
Failing safety tests and arguing for exemptions is gross enough but that they’d sell safety devices with finicky updates and potentially aware they were broken deserves the corporate death penalty.
We’d be better off if more companies were killed off and their IP put onto public domain when they committed grave offenses.
In fact, why wait for them to commit a grave offence? :) The people already know how to build everything we need – let’s get rid of the companies today.
This, but unironically.
I’m not sure that’s a fair characterization.
IIUC, they were NOT simply arguing for a blanket exemption from standards, but rather an adjustment of the standardized test setup to better reflect the fundamentally different way their helmet worked.
Which seems to me to at least be a colorable argument. I don’t think there’s any reason to believe the standardized test setup was perfect, or fully captures the distribution of real-world dangers. Such things often aren’t and don’t, and make a lot of assumptions which might not be justified, particularly when someone comes along using a fundamentally different approach to the problem.
So an adjustment to the testing like using a less sharply pointed anvil seems pretty reasonable, particularly if it’s backed up by crash statistics. (I know in my daily ride, most of the surfaces I’d be concerned about hitting are pretty blunt. How often does one actually land head-first on a pickelhaube, after all?)
If you look at the test results using the modified protocols, their gear was indeed way better at reducing the kind of shock and torsion that causes concussions. Almost an order of magnitude better than foam helmets, which can only tackle that problem with gimmicky inserts a couple of millimeters thick. Hövding may have had some implementation and business issues, but a big air cushion wrapped around your head is really not a fundamentally bad idea, and I’m a little bit sad about this news myself.
Did Wynonas Big Brown Beaver start plating in anyone elses head when they say the thumbnail?
If only there was a proven and reliable technology from the motorcycle world to activate wearable airbags…
Like, say, a cord attached to your vehicle.
If only….
I suspect the mechanics of pedal cycle incidents and motor cycle incidents are different enough that that’s at best an incomplete solution.
There are fundamental differences, like bicycles are not necessarily separated from their riders during crashes, bicycle riders are more physically active while riding limiting the tethering points, and bicycle riders are not accustomed to turning off their bicycles.
Interesting idea but it seems ridiculous when a regular helmet is arguably better, simpler, AND cheaper. Are people really so bothered by helmets? I barely even notice I’m wearing one. The only downside is that you have to store it, put it on and take it off, but this product has the exact seam issues.
Yep. In over 100,000 miles of riding, I have never had an incident where a helmet helped anything; but I need a hat anyway, and it might as well be a helmet, even though bicycle helmets don’t offer nearly the protection that a motorcycle helmet or race-car helmet does.
Yeah… Probably not going to download a helmet. Doesn’t seem like the thing you’d want to scrimp and save on. Also I don’t think I’d trust the airbag mechanism, and I’d rather have a windscreen and some shades that I could deploy when I’m staring down the sun in the morning and evening. So a permanent physical helmet is handy for many reasons besides safety.
Lastly, if you look at heatmaps of fatal head strikes in two-wheeled-vehicle crashes, the hottest spot is right on the chin. 3/4 helmets do not count, a lot of motorcyclists don’t understand this. I see riders who fifteen years ago would just let the wind run through their hair are now wearing these little retro 3/4 pudding bowls.. You may as well just pretend it is 1973 and ride without gear at that point, because statistically it’s not going to help you in the majority of crashes.
And of course ~zero bicyclists wear full helmets. I wonder if that will ever become a trend. I get it, it’s a big hassle for just pedaling around on a bike.
I wouldn’t? I’d download enough helmets for the battle of the Pelennor Fields.