Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by VLM 2652 days ago
Air bags are extremely cheap, like the cost of a (typical, not extreme) car stereo.

The designers generally don't care what happens to the rest of the car after deployment, so expect a broken windshield, various broken dashboard components, destroyed steering wheel components, HVAC system cracked (ducts, freon lines, vacuum lines, and water lines), broken wires of various kinds...

Even if the air conditioner evaporator coil wasn't cracked, for example, the sheer labor cost of having to disassemble and inspect the entire interior of the car is very expensive for labor. Technically yes you can replace an airbag in about an hour, then you discover there's no turn signals and at next inspection/registration you discover there's no working horn, etc etc it adds up.