Well this is new, and sort of neat. For the new V40, Volvo is introducing the world’s first pedestrian airbag system, designed to reduce the severity of pedestrian injuries in a car-pedestrian collision. Alternatively it could double as a sweet new inflatable mattress on the hood of your car.

There are a bunch of other safety features thrown in too, though – an automatic braking mechanism in the event that hood-mounted cameras spot a pedestrian in the car’s way too late for the driver to react, for instance.

Says the Volvo press release:

In order to mitigate the consequences if a collision with a pedestrian is unavoidable, the Volvo V40 features newly developed Pedestrian Airbag Technology, a world first. It works like this: Sensors in the front bumper register the physical contact between the car and the pedestrian. The rear end of the bonnet is released and at the same time elevated by the deploying airbag. The inflated airbag covers the area under the raised bonnet plus approximately one third of the windscreen area and the lower part of the A-pillar. The raised bonnet and airbag will help reduce the severity of pedestrian injuries.

All of which sounds pretty fancy, and futuristic? I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait to barely survive being hit a V40.

[Source: Volvo]