We actually started a survey of getting the in-car location of the airbag gateways by brand. The goal is to find out in a case of a car accident which airbag sensors were activated. To know where the airbag gateway is located helps to fast get access and to test if the gatway is responding in a disconnected state from the car electronics.

Here a BMW sample pic
i.ebayimg.com/00/s/NzY...c/$_58.JPG

Please help us by providing a picture or graphics of where in-car the airbag gateway is LOCATED.

We kindly ask to support our global survey  

Right-side driving example (if pic not rotated), may UK or Commonwealth

i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MzU...G?set_id=2

Please help to post  

Or this Mini

cdn4.pelicanparts.com/.../pic10.jpg  

For Volkswagen cars, you could subscribe to erWin and look through the repair manuals for module locations. The location may vary between models, though with most of the current range using a similar platform, there may be more commonality.

Prices for access can be found below:

Volkswagen erWin

Hope this helps  

Thank you. We have erWIN access already. Real-life pics would help to get a complete information about in-car location, connectivity (cable types and wires attached) and how much time to deep-dive into the cars organs.  

Maybe it would be worth trying to contact some car body shops? If you can make contacts there, maybe they will be so kind to photograph the controller modules when they are replacing them post deployment?  

Good idea but does not work properly. The airbag ECU is typically nobody hands-on until 'broken'. Most are not 'broken' but need a reset and you have to open the box. Crashed new cars are not accessible on the second hand market as they are sold fast to dealers taking them to eastern countries to rebuild or break in parts for sale.

If you can build a trustful relationship to your personal car service partner. Ask him for making pictures when they replace airbag ECUs and send them in a closed-loop to the respective car manufacturer.

'Open Thorax' pictures have the highest grade of compressed information.