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Honda demonstrates new Vehicle-to-Pedestrian safety tech [w/video]

We're fresh from a balmy rooftop deck in downtown Detroit, where Honda held a meeting this week to discuss and demonstrate a few upcoming advanced safety features. A clear focus of the mini event was the company's new Vehicle-to-Pedestrian (V2P) technology, with a suite of Vehicle-to-Motorcycle (V2M) tech a significant second course.
With spirits still high from announcing the 2014 Odyssey as the first minivan to win the Top Safety Pick+ status from IIHS - and after seeing the application of new high-strength-steel sections of the Acura MDX body structure - Honda shared the fruits of some safety tech that is still in the research phase.

8 cars we're most looking forward to driving in 2015

Now that 2014 is officially in the books, it's time to look ahead. And following our list of the cars we liked best last year, we're now setting our sights at the hot new metal that's coming our way in 2015. Some of these, we've already seen. And some are still set to debut during the 2015 auto show season. But these are the machines that keep us going – the things on the horizon that we're particularly stoked to drive, and drive hard. Jeep Renegade Not the Chevrolet Corvette Z06. Not the Ford Mustang GT350. Not the new John Cooper Works Mini. Nope, I'm looking forward to the adorable, trail-rated Jeep Renegade. And that's because I really, really, really like our long-term Jeep Cherokee Trailhawk. I do not, however, care too much for the Cherokee's looks, and I really don't like its $38,059 price tag. The Renegade Trailhawk, meanwhile, promises much of the same rough-and-tumble character as its big brother, but at what we expect will be a more reasonable price (I'm personally wagering on the baby Jeep's off-road model starting at no more than $23,000). With a 2.4-liter four-cylinder and a nine-speed automatic, it should also be a bit easier to fill than the V6-powered Cherokee. Also, I can't help but love the way the Renegade looks. It's like someone took a Wrangler, squished it by 50 percent and then handed it off to George Clinton for a healthy dose of funk. The interior, with its bright, expressive trims and color schemes should also be a really nice place to spend some time. I'll be attending the Renegade's launch later this month, so I'll have a much shorter wait than my colleagues. Here's hoping the baby Jeep lives up to my expectations. – Brandon Turkus Associate Editor Mazda MX-5 Miata Here's an uncomfortable truth: I'd rather spend a day driving a properly sorted Mazda MX-5 Miata of any generation on a winding road than I would nearly any other vehicle, regardless of power, price or prestige. It's not just that I prize top-down driving and enjoy the Miata's small size because it gives me more road to play with. I just find there's more motoring joy to be had with high-fidelity handling and an uncorrupted car-to-driver communication loop than I do with face-distorting power or grip – let alone valet-stand gravitas. But perhaps most of all, I love Miatas because they can deliver that level of feedback and driver reward at modest speeds that won't put the locals on edge or endanger lives – you can use more of the car more of the time.

2021 Acura TLX is the first model with Honda’s new proprietary airbag

When it arrives in showrooms this fall, the 2021 Acura TLX will be the first vehicle equipped with the new three-chamber front passenger airbag design Honda announced last year, reinforcing the automaker’s commitment to infused the sports sedan with state-of-the-art safety bonafides. As explained in the video above, the new airbag was designed and developed by engineers at HondaÂ’s R&D campus in Ohio and auto supplier Autoliv to mitigate the risk of severe brain trauma associated with angled frontal collisions. With its official launch in the 2021 TLX, the airbag will begin to be offered to other automakers through Autoliv. Work on the new airbag design stemmed in part from a 2013 U.S. Department of Transportation study that used MRI scans to look at brain injuries resulting from vehicle accidents and led to the creation of Brain Injury Criteria methodology for measuring brain injuries in vehicle crashes. Accordingly, Honda and Autoliv designed an airbag that does away with the traditional single-inflatable chamber in favor of something likened to a catcherÂ’s mitt, with a central “sail panel” net catching and slowing down the head and directing it inward between the two inflated side chambers. The idea is to better manage lateral forces in a collision that can cause an occupantÂ’s head to rotate severely and at high velocity. Honda is hailing the new airbag as a major advance in airbag design. It follows the companyÂ’s introduction, in 1990, of the first vertically deploying front passenger airbag for the 1991 Acura Legend, a design that became broadly adopted in the industry. Honda is packing lots of other safety features into the 2021 Acura TLX, including knee airbags for driver and front passenger, both contained beneath a panel on the underside of the instrument panel, and eight airbags total, the most ever for the model. It will also come standard with the AcuraWatch suite of advanced safety and driver-assist technologies and AcuraÂ’s Advanced Compatability Engineering body structure, which has been advanced to boost occupant safety by redirecting energy away from the passenger compartment in a frontal crash. Acura says it expects to get a five-star crash rating from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and a Top Safety Pick+ rating from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.