President Lyndon Johnson is best remembered for the Vietnam War and the War on Poverty, but he also started a &#8220;war&#8221; for auto safety that eventually put airbags in America&#8217;s cars.</p><p>Johnson signed the National Traffic and Motor Safety Act in 1966, saying the government must make sure automakers build safer cars.</p><p>&#8220;We are going to cut down this senseless loss of lives,&#8221; Johnson said. &#8220;We are going to cut down the heartbreak.&#8221;</p><p>A few years later, regulators started recommending airbags to save lives. But car companies found little interest in the select models with the safety devices.</p><p>By the late 1980s, Detroit decided the time was right for front airbags. Automakers started making them standard equipment, and Congress codified the trend in 1991 with an airbag mandate.</p><p>Today&#8217;s systems have two-stage airbags with full force for a severe accident and less force for a moderate crash. They also have sensors to detect the weight and position of occupants to improve the system&#8217;s performance.