High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! SIPS, acronym for Side Impact Protection System, is a system of protection against side impacts developed by Volvo. SIPS was released in the Volvo 900 Series in 1991. The SIPS system worked by having the driver and passenger seat mounted on transverse steel rails, not bolted to the floor as per the standard configuration. In a side impact these transverse rails allowed the seats to crush a reinforced center console during a side impact. The system is designed to more widely distribute the energy in a side impact across the whole side of the car rather than having the B-pillar absorb it all. The SIPS side seat airbags were released in 1994 850 models and became standard beginning in 1995.