Ford Flex, Two Lincolns To Get Inflatable Seat Belts

The Ford Flex three-row crossover and two as-yet-unnamed Lincoln models will get the belts when they go on sale next summer.

Not surprisingly, Ford says early data suggests parents are ordering this option.

The airbags deploy for rear passengers in the event of a crash and help keep people located properly in the seat, as well as distribute the force of the impact traveling through the belts across a broader area of the person’s body. 

Unlike traditional airbags that use a heat-generating chemical reaction to inflate, the seat belt bags use a small compressed-gas canister that’s located under the seat to inflate.