Has anyone ever heard of this?

[chris24]

My girlfriend just had to bring her X3 in because her airbag light was on. Now, I don't know if she lost something in translation here, but what she told me they said was that her seat covers (both front seats) had to be replaced because of a sensor in the seats that indicates whether or not someone's in the car, and that those sensors deactivate the airbags if no-one is sitting in the seat/s.

Now, obviously the car isn't going to drive itself, so I see no reason such a sensor would exist at all in the driver's seat. Further, it makes no sense to me that the activation of the airbags should depend upon a sensor that, if faulty, could incorrectly turn off the airbags and fail to serve its purpose if there were a passenger in the car and God forbid an accident occur.

Has anyone ever heard of such a thing? I hope either she misunderstood something or they didn't explain it to her correctly........... But they did replace the leather on both of her front seats as a result of the airbag light being on.