TEG

Something that came up on a search of "FMVSS" and "airbag":

http://regulations.justia.com/view/85167/

This appears to be in a 30 day review period, and a negative outcome might cause a problem for Roadster sales in the USA.

The text of that document shows the odd position of trying to see if the Roadster can be classified as a Lotus to use their existing exemption. Meanwhile Tesla had gone out of their way to say that the Roadster was not a Lotus at all (even though it is made in a Lotus factory using many Lotus parts)

Hopefully this little wrinkle gets sorted out quickly.

malcolm

Quote from this document:

Because of the nature of the requirements for protecting
out-of-position occupants, ``off-the-shelf'' systems could not be
readily adopted. Further complicating matters, because small volume
manufacturers build so few vehicles, the costs of developing custom
advanced air bag systems compared to potential profits discouraged some
air bag suppliers from working with small volume manufacturers.

Is there enough space in a Roadster to be an "out of position occupant"? :)

WarpedOne

A small child on passanger seat is kinda out of intended position.
I do not know for America but here it is illegal for children under 12 to seat in the front, so they are automatically prohibited to ride along in such a car.

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TEG

Small children are not supposed to ride in front seats with airbags in the USA also.
Some vehicles have a manual switch to disable the passenger airbag if there is child in the front seat.
Some vehicles have a weight sensor on the passenger seat to automatically disable the airbag if the occupant doesn't weight enough.
I am not sure what technology is involved with the "advanced" airbags that Tesla would need to sell the vehicle without an exemption.

For all I know they already got their exemption, and this is old news... Lets hope.