It was a long time ago and I’m guessing they put some fail-safe’s in since then.
They were Gen 1 rip your head off and kill your children airbags
They are much better now (other than the exploding Takatas). I think their detonation level is variable, so they can respond appropriately to a given accident.
I know they were literally ripping heads off of infants (well over 100 of them). That must have been a bit annoying for the soccer moms who got into fender-benders during a milk run. Needless to say, the media, dutifully, spiked most of those stories, but it leaked out anyway.