BMW M5 Automobile User Manual


 
164n
Deceleration sensors continuously
monitor the physical forces acting upon
the vehicle. If, as the result of a frontal
collision, a deceleration is reached at
which the protection of the safety belts
alone is no longer adequate, the gas
generators of the driver and passenger-
front airbags are ignited. However, the
passenger-side airbag is only triggered
if an additional sensor has recognized
that the passenger seat is occupied.
In the event of a side collision, the head
protection and side airbags in the front
and rear
* are triggered if necessary.
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The airbags located under the marked
covers inflate and unfold in a matter of a
few milliseconds. In this process, they
tear through the designed breaking
points of the upholstered covers or
press them out.
Because the inflation process must be
virtually instantaneous, it is necessarily
accompanied by a certain amount of
ignition and inflation noise. The gas
required to inflate the airbags is not
dangerous, and the associated smoke
then dissipates.
The entire process is completed within
fractions of a second.
Radio waves – medium-wave, long-
wave and short-wave – offer a wide
range of reception, because the broad-
cast signals travel not only along the
ground as surface waves, but also as
waves bounced back to earth from the
ionosphere.
Frequency-modulation (FM) provides
substantially better sound quality than
AM. However, because FM transmis-
sions rely on line-of-sight broadcast
waves, their effective reception range is
limited.
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Airbags Radio reception
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