[6] Driver and passenger seat are mounted on transverse steel rails,[10] not bolted to the floor as per the standard configuration.
[11] In a side impact these transverse rails allow the seats to crush a reinforced center console designed to absorb additional energy.
[15] The system consists of a mechanically[20] activated[21] side airbag that protects the front seat occupants torsos from hitting the cars interior.
[13][25] In 2006,[26] for the 2007 model year, the fourth generation SIPS was introduced incorporating more high strength steel, structural changes, more bracing and dual chamber sips-bags.
Ford marketed its system as SPACE (Side Protection and Cabin Enhancement) Architecture, incorporating at floor level a bolt-in hydroformed cross-car steel beam between the B-pillars directly below an identical reinforced cross-roof beam above the B-pillars[29][30] to channel impact forces around rather than through the passenger cabin.