In 1953, a retired industrial engineer named John Hendrick had a lightbulb moment and patented the first car airbag. Fast forward a couple of decades, and GM offered them in some models, but let’s just say they were like a soufflé—prone to deflation. It wasn’t until 1981 that Mercedes-Benz introduced an airbag that actually worked without a hitch. By 1998, dual front seat airbags became mandatory in the U.S., ensuring that our cars were prepared for anything—except maybe driving through a marshmallow factory!
A retired industrial engineer named John Hendrick patented the first airbag for an automobile in 1953-through the ’70’s GM did offer them as options on some models-but they were not very good-the system still needed some work. It took until 1981 before Mercedes-Benz offered a version that worked fairly well and in 1998 the dual front seat air bags became mandatory in the U.S.A.
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