Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Airbags certainly do run the cost and complexity of cars way up That's not the case (emphasis on the "way up" part). The average new car price is over $33,000 in the US. Airbags, including side curtains, are a trivial portion of that cost. Even if you averaged it all out by including all airbag deployments and the cost to replace them, you're talking about a net 1%-2% of the cost of a new vehicle's purchase price (…
I wonder how many more wrecks happen due to the reduction of visibility caused by extra wide columns needed to fit the side curtains.
Self driving cars will probably take over before "front blind spot detection" becomes a thing.