Smart vehicle systems and control logic for valid airbag detection and authentication

Abstract

Presented are smart vehicle systems for valid airbag detection and authentication, methods for making/using such smart vehicle systems, and motor vehicles equipped with such systems. A method of operating a host vehicle includes a near-field communication (NFC) transceiver attached to the host vehicle's body detecting installation of a supplemental inflatable restraint (SIR) module in the vehicle's passenger cabin. Responsive to detecting the SIR module, the NFC transceiver pairs with an NFC tag mounted to the SIR module and a vehicle controller retrieves unique SIR module data specific to the SIR module from the paired NFC tag. The unique SIR module data is compared to unique SIR data specific to the host vehicle to determine if the SIR module is invalid. Responsive to the SIR module being invalid, the vehicle controller commands a resident vehicle subsystem to execute a remediating action to prevent or mitigate activation of the invalid SIR module.