
Hövding – Airbag for cyclists - some1else
http://www.hovding.com
======
ColinWright
Here are a few other submissions of this story:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3977212](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3977212)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4382338](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4382338)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4392310](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4392310)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4467171](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4467171)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6271073](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6271073)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6442570](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6442570)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6691432](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6691432)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6700690](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6700690)

Oddly, none has any discussion of significance.

~~~
jared314
The submissions with discussions were:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1828134](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1828134)
(3 years ago)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4388056](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4388056)
(1 year ago)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6685798](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6685798)
(2 days ago)

I remember seeing this a while ago, so it wouldn't surprise me if there were
more threads lost to history.

------
samworm
The "Two Swedish Girls" are two women, who studied Industrial Design at
University before moving into product development. If two males in their mid
twenties were launching a product no one would refer to them as "boys".

"Hövding started out in 2005 as a master’s thesis by the two founders Anna
Haupt and Terese Alstin, who, at the time, were studying Industrial Design at
the University of Lund."

The title of this post is condescending and clichéd. Yawn.

~~~
mjolk
Oh, give it a rest. The topic of the submission is "Hövding – Airbag for
cyclists," and if the title attribute on the linked site says "girls," then
who cares. Using 'girls' instead of 'women' is similar to using 'guys' instead
of 'men.' Stop feigning offense to feed into your fictional-worldview of
social-righteous superiority.

------
Ironballs
Ah. So nice when science fiction actually _happens_.

“She lets go of the handle and goes into free fall.

At the same time, she jerks the manual release on her cervical collar and goes
into full Michelin Man mode as tiny gas cartridges detonate in several
strategic locations around her bod. The biggest one goes off like an M-80 at
the nape of her neck, unfurling the coverall's collar into a cylindrical
gasbag that shoots straight up and encases her entire head. Other airbags go
off around her torso and pelvis, paying lots of attention to that spinal
column.”

\-- Neal Stephenson, _Snow Crash_

~~~
ZoFreX
That sounds a lot more similar to the airbag vests used in motorbike racing
than the Hovding. Of course, in both the ones that actually exist, activation
is automatic and not manual!

~~~
lcedp
Manual activation doesn't imply no automatic activation.

------
christiangenco
Mirror: [http://vimeo.com/43038579](http://vimeo.com/43038579)

Took me a second to figure out what this actually was. At first it looked like
some kind of startup parody video where they're not actually selling a
product.

Very cool idea! An airbag makes a lot more sense than a hard incompressible
piece of styrofoam. As long as they get the deployment timings right, I see
this taking off.

~~~
zhemao
Yeah, I don't understand why they didn't actually show the product until the
very end.

------
hop
There is very little acceleration by the head when the bag senses an eminent
collision and deploys as the car hits the rear wheel and the person starts to
go back.

I do not think or trust they can design a sensor that would deploy when it
needs to without misfiring all the time. And if it fires, you have to buy a
whole other one.

~~~
ZoFreX
> I do not think or trust they can design a sensor that would deploy when it
> needs to without misfiring all the time. And if it fires, you have to buy a
> whole other one.

Rather than merely speculating, one could look into it, given that this
product is released and thus well studied and reviewed. If anything it seems
to lean towards not deploying, as in minor accidents it won't go off.

A decent insurance policy should cover much of the cost of replacement.

------
spIrr
Why doesn't it deploy over one's back?

------
maxk42
Why doesn't it cover the eyes?

~~~
donutdan4114
I think for right now, people would be too scared to wear something that could
potentially explode and cover their eyes.

If they prove that these systems never accidentally go off, I think they
should have a full head version that protects the full face too; or at least
cover a much higher percentage of the face, maybe leaving only the eyes
uncovered.

------
spajus
400 EUR per single pop...

------
ye
€399 can get you a really really really nice helmet, like carbon fiber.

And I wouldn't need to worry whether my helmet actually works, and whether I
forgot to charge it (their battery only lasts 18 hours).

And I wouldn't need to worry whether their patterns cover every single case
when I get hit by a car or hit a curb at some weird angle.

~~~
marquis
Sadly I've known cyclists to die while wearing helmets. My concern would be in
those countries such as Australia and New Zealand, spending an hour explaining
that yes, this is a helmet please don't give me a ticket. However I'm sure you
could combine it with some kind of slim-shell helmet if you were worried more
about cracking your skull than dislocating your neck.

~~~
ye
Cyclists will die no matter what. No helmet will save you if you get hit hard
enough.

The difference with this airbag is, your airbag is not aware of anything
that's flying towards your head, like a truck hitting you on the side. It only
inflates _after_ you hit something and start flying.

~~~
guiomie
Its for urban cycling. I've never seen someone being hit as if he was one the
highway in a city. Only car breaks, distance is too short, boom, backflip for
the cyclist.

~~~
ye
"I've never seen" is a bad metric.

I've never seen a deadly car accident, but there are like 30 thousand car
accident deaths per year in the US alone.

