According to the Highway Loss Data Institute, approximately 250,000 cars are damaged by hail every year in the U.S. alone. The average cost of repair comes in at just over US$3,100, so what’s a person to do to protect their vehicle when rain takes the form of ice sculpted golf balls? The obvious solution – airbag the car.
Shifting the airbag from a car's interior to its exterior was the idea of the folks at Texas-based Hail Storm Products. The company's patented Hail Protection System is essentially a puffy car cover/airbag in one that is designed to protect from hail damage.
The system includes a smartphone app – available for iOS and Android – that uses information from the USA’s National Weather Service to provide owners with a warning on the potential for hail 30-60 minutes before a storm hits. For those that have forgotten their phone, the system will also send an email alert.
The cover itself is made up of two layers, the first of which straps to the wheels and under the car, with the second forming the outer protection. The cover inflates via four blowers that are powered by a small compressor that sits idle until the owner engages the defense system using a small remote.
With the ability to inflate in less than five minutes, the manufacturer claims the system can protect vehicles from hail up to the size of a softball. Once the storm has passed, the system then goes on standby and returns to its role as the Clark Kent of car covers.
In addition to hail defense, the cover also offers the usual UV protection, water resistance and breathability when not in armor mode. Installation is also car cover simple, with a few minor steps added for the strapping down and power connections.
The system retails for between $299 and $399, depending on the size of the vehicle to be protected.
The video below shows the Hail Protector inflating at 25x normal speed.
Source. Hail Storm Products
Don't those big hail storms go together with very strong winds? Seeing the video suggests this balloon is affected by wind a lot.
Inflated it may become a sail and be pressed against the car. curious how well it handles that. Also the fans inflating the balloon are rather weak suggesting a gust of wind can press the air out of the balloon (deflate it) and it just might take far too long to re-inflate the balloon before hail stones fall.
A video showing that it works will be hard to make but would be more convincing.
just a silly question.
Here's an alternative:
http://www.hail-shield.com
Not very high tech but neither is a comb - it just does what it's meant to do. It's compact and portable, and sets up in an instant. The high-tech is in the thought that went into design rather than the complexity of the product which makes it as simple, and thus fast and inexpensive as possible.
5 minutes of install time when we give you your hail forecast for the day and update it as your hail forecast changes. So you've truly got hours of heads up. Then we give you a 30 to 60 minute heads up to press your button to activate. And once you press the button you begin getting protection within 2 minutes and have full protection within 5 minutes. Powered by AA batteries for 1 hour, powered by cigarette lighter cord for 2.5 hours without effecting the starting power of your car or by AC outlet virtually indefinitely. Packs up in the size of a dry cleaning bag. Portability was essential to the design.