For proper release of side airbags, the onset of crash should be detected first. After crash detection, the algorithm has to make a decision whether the side airbag deployment is necessary. If the deployment is necessary, proper timing has to be provided for the maximum protection of driver or passenger. The side airbag release algorithm should be robust against the statistical deviations which are inherent to experimental crash test data. Deterministic optimization algorithms cannot be used for the side aribag release algorithm since the objective function cannot be expressed in a closed form. From this background, genetic algorithm has been used for the optimization. The optimization requires moderate amount of computation and gives satisfactory results.