2007 Cadillac DTS Owner's Manual - Page 73

When Should an Airbag Inflate? The driver's and right front passenger's frontal airbags are designed to inflate in moderate to severe frontal or near-frontal crashes. But they are designed to inflate only if the impact exceeds a predetermined deployment threshold. Deployment thresholds take into account a variety of desired deployment and non-deployment events and are used to predict how severe a crash is likely to be in time for the airbags to inflate and help restrain the occupants. Whether your frontal airbags will or should deploy is not based on how fast your vehicle is traveling. It depends largely on what you hit, the direction of the impact, and how quickly your vehicle slows down. Your vehicle has a "dual stage" driver airbag, which adjusts the restraint according to crash severity using electronic frontal sensor(s) which help the sensing system distinguish between a moderate frontal impact and a more severe frontal impact. The "dual stage" driver airbag inflates to a level less than full deployment for moderate frontal impacts and to a full deployment for more severe frontal impacts. Your vehicle has a "dual depth" passenger airbag that adjusts the restraint according to crash severity, seat location, and safety belt status using electronic frontal sensor(s) and other special sensors which enable the sensing system to monitor the status of the front passenger safety belt and the position of the front passenger seat. The passenger airbag inflates to a reduced depth when the passenger seat is in a forward position. For more rearward front seating positions, the passenger airbag may inflate to an increased depth (a full deployment), based on safety belt status and the crash severity measured early in the event. Always wear your safety belt, even with frontal airbags. If the front of your vehicle goes straight into a wall that does not move or deform, the threshold level for the reduced deployment is about 12 to 16 mph (19 to 26 km/h), and the threshold level for a full deployment is about 17 to 23 mph (27 to 37 km/h) if the other sensors do not over-ride this. The threshold level can vary, however, with specific vehicle design, so that it can be somewhat above or below this range. 73