Chevrolet Cruze 2012 User Manual download pdf (Page 16)

Cruze is THE

FIRST COMPACT CAR

WITH 10 STANDARD

AIR BAGS.

IT'S

the new standard.

KEN BONELLO SAFETY ENGINEER

defensive positions

Ken Bonello has a passion for Safety Engineering. He and his colleagues have crashed

hundreds of cars—and designed thousands of complex computer models to help ensure

that Chevy vehicles are safe. Here, Bonello expounds on his experience helping

to develop the first compact car to offer ten standard air bags.

“For Cruze, we crashed dozens of prototypes. It’s always exciting. You’re standing

behind the safety glass, heart pumping. But those are the best days because you

figure out if you got it right, or you learn something that helps you make a safer car;

it’s all worth it.”

Bonello says safety systems have many components. “Cruze is the first car in its

segment to offer ten standard air bags.

Most people are familiar with six. Cruze

has additional knee air bags in the front seating positions, which provide restraint

to your lower body and lower legs. In the rear, we put in outboard rear-seat side

air bags. Approximately sixty-four percent of the body structure of Cruze is

high-strength steel, which we utilize in selective areas. Panic Brake Assist is a

system that detects if there’s an urgent stopping condition. It can sense how the

pedal is depressed and provides a quick additional braking boost to help keep you

out of danger. Another set of sensors can detect if the vehicle is entering a rollover

condition, and if so, will deploy the side-impact head-curtain air bags.”

But safety is more than systems, it’s a point of view. “People who develop safety

engineering really believe in what they’re doing. It’s fun. You get to play with cars,

crash cars into walls, but ultimately you’re helping to save people’s lives. There’s a

lot of art that goes into designing a safe vehicle. It’s not like there is a formula that

you can crank out and say, ‘Here’s my safe car.’ It requires a lot of strategy, a lot of

intelligent thinking. It’s quite a challenge. But if you believe in what you’re doing,

you’re going to put all your effort into it.”

1 Air bag inflation can cause severe injury or death to anyone too close to the

air bag when it deploys. Be sure every occupant is properly restrained.

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Chevrolet Cruze 2012 User Manual Page 16