Black plate (45,1)Cadillac Escalade/Escalade ESV Owner Manual - 2011Seats and Restraints 3-45The seat position sensor providesinformation that is used to determineif the airbags should deploy at areduced level or at full deployment.The vehicle has seat‐mountedside impact and roof-rail airbags.See Airbag System on page 3‑39.Seat‐mounted side impact androof-rail airbags are intended toinflate in moderate to severe sidecrashes. In addition, these roof-railairbags are intended to inflateduring a rollover or in a severefrontal impact. Seat‐mounted sideimpact and roof-rail airbags willinflate if the crash severity is abovethe system's designed thresholdlevel. The threshold level can varywith specific vehicle design.Roof-rail airbags are notintended to inflate in rear impacts.A seat‐mounted side impact airbagis intended to deploy on the side ofthe vehicle that is struck. Bothroof-rail airbags will deploy wheneither side of the vehicle is struckor if the sensing system predictsthat the vehicle is about to roll over,or in a severe frontal impact.In any particular crash, no onecan say whether an airbag shouldhave inflated simply because ofthe damage to a vehicle or becauseof what the repair costs were.For frontal airbags, inflation isdetermined by what the vehicle hits,the angle of the impact, and howquickly the vehicle slows down.For seat‐mounted side impact androof-rail airbags, deployment isdetermined by the location andseverity of the side impact. In arollover event, roof-rail airbagdeployment is determined bythe direction of the roll.What Makes an AirbagInflate?In a deployment event, the sensingsystem sends an electrical signaltriggering a release of gas from theinflator. Gas from the inflator fills theairbag causing the bag to break outof the cover and deploy. The inflator,the airbag, and related hardware areall part of the airbag module.Frontal airbag modules are locatedinside the steering wheel andinstrument panel. For vehicles withseat‐mounted side impact airbags,there are airbags modules in theside of the front seatbacks closestto the door. For vehicles withroof-rail airbags, there are airbagmodules in the ceiling of the vehicle,near the side windows that haveoccupant seating positions.
