Grill and up is more important for protecting the really important human bits, ideally you want to lessen the impact by making the pedestrian roll over smoothly, it’s why Nissan (and Suzuki, might be others) had hoods that prop up automatically. This is just the logical next step.

edit: completely forgot about Volvo. From the article

Pedestrians 80cm tall and above can be detected, and crashes can be avoided through full automatic braking at vehicle speeds up to 35km/h.

So it seems this airbag is intended for faster crashes.

Probably more expensive to make that system than airbags, don’t know about R&D. I’m assuming even the newest EyeSight is camera-based so there will be times it just can’t see

edit: nvm, newer eyesight includes lidar

How about just separate cars from pedestrians and bicycles?

How would road crossings work? If those airbags are standard, I see it as a good thing. Subaru building bigger and heavier cars isn’t though.