Skip to main content

Smart ski vest can detect when you’re falling, deploy airbags before you hit the ground

First smart ski airbag vest by In&motion
The protective ski apparel made famous by the likes of James Bond is no longer just fiction. A French company called In&motion has created a smart ski vest that can convert into a full body airbag when its complex sensor system detects changes in the wearer’s movement patterns. It looks like your classic piste jacket, but the
Recommended Videos
Smart Ski Airbag Vest will keep any athlete safe on the slopes.

The vest was displayed at CES as a new product in wearable technology, since its high-tech internal systems are its most impressive feature. Using the same type of sensor technology found in smart watches and fitness trackers, the Smart Ski Airbag Vest can detect motion changes that will most likely result in falls. The sensor suite is made up of a GPS, a gyroscope, and an accelerometer. Once a dangerous angle or sudden change in motion or orientation is detected, the vest can deploy and fully inflate in less than one tenth of a second.

In terms of safety, one of the vest’s most important features is the full airbag design. Instead of just protecting the head and shoulders, Smart Ski Airbag Vest protects the hips, back and vital organs – all body parts that see considerable damage when accidents occur on the slopes. In&motion partnered with the French national Skicross team to develop the vest in advance of their World Cup events, and since then, the International Ski Federation has approved the vest for use by professional athletes in competitive ski events.

The Smart Ski Airbag Vest is scheduled to reach the shelves of pro athletics stores by summer 2016. The vest will retail for about $1,200, but even amateur athletes need to stay safe in dangerous terrain. Considering this will be the first time that an airbag-equipped smart vest will be available outside experimental circles and the professional athletics community, it just might be the hot new ski accessory when next winter rolls around.

Chloe Olewitz
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Chloe is a writer from New York with a passion for technology, travel, and playing devil's advocate. You can find out more…
Range Rover’s first electric SUV has 48,000 pre-orders
Land Rover Range Rover Velar SVAutobiography Dynamic Edition

Range Rover, the brand made famous for its British-styled, luxury, all-terrain SUVs, is keen to show it means business about going electric.

And, according to the most recent investor presentation by parent company JLR, that’s all because Range Rover fans are showing the way. Not only was demand for Range Rover’s hybrid vehicles up 29% in the last six months, but customers are buying hybrids “as a stepping stone towards battery electric vehicles,” the company says.

Read more
BYD’s cheap EVs might remain out of Canada too
BYD Han

With Chinese-made electric vehicles facing stiff tariffs in both Europe and America, a stirring question for EV drivers has started to arise: Can the race to make EVs more affordable continue if the world leader is kept out of the race?

China’s BYD, recognized as a global leader in terms of affordability, had to backtrack on plans to reach the U.S. market after the Biden administration in May imposed 100% tariffs on EVs made in China.

Read more
Tesla posts exaggerate self-driving capacity, safety regulators say
Beta of Tesla's FSD in a car.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is concerned that Tesla’s use of social media and its website makes false promises about the automaker’s full-self driving (FSD) software.
The warning dates back from May, but was made public in an email to Tesla released on November 8.
The NHTSA opened an investigation in October into 2.4 million Tesla vehicles equipped with the FSD software, following three reported collisions and a fatal crash. The investigation centers on FSD’s ability to perform in “relatively common” reduced visibility conditions, such as sun glare, fog, and airborne dust.
In these instances, it appears that “the driver may not be aware that he or she is responsible” to make appropriate operational selections, or “fully understand” the nuances of the system, NHTSA said.
Meanwhile, “Tesla’s X (Twitter) account has reposted or endorsed postings that exhibit disengaged driver behavior,” Gregory Magno, the NHTSA’s vehicle defects chief investigator, wrote to Tesla in an email.
The postings, which included reposted YouTube videos, may encourage viewers to see FSD-supervised as a “Robotaxi” instead of a partially automated, driver-assist system that requires “persistent attention and intermittent intervention by the driver,” Magno said.
In one of a number of Tesla posts on X, the social media platform owned by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, a driver was seen using FSD to reach a hospital while undergoing a heart attack. In another post, a driver said he had used FSD for a 50-minute ride home. Meanwhile, third-party comments on the posts promoted the advantages of using FSD while under the influence of alcohol or when tired, NHTSA said.
Tesla’s official website also promotes conflicting messaging on the capabilities of the FSD software, the regulator said.
NHTSA has requested that Tesla revisit its communications to ensure its messaging remains consistent with FSD’s approved instructions, namely that the software provides only a driver assist/support system requiring drivers to remain vigilant and maintain constant readiness to intervene in driving.
Tesla last month unveiled the Cybercab, an autonomous-driving EV with no steering wheel or pedals. The vehicle has been promoted as a robotaxi, a self-driving vehicle operated as part of a ride-paying service, such as the one already offered by Alphabet-owned Waymo.
But Tesla’s self-driving technology has remained under the scrutiny of regulators. FSD relies on multiple onboard cameras to feed machine-learning models that, in turn, help the car make decisions based on what it sees.
Meanwhile, Waymo’s technology relies on premapped roads, sensors, cameras, radar, and lidar (a laser-light radar), which might be very costly, but has met the approval of safety regulators.

Read more