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US 10,589,713 B2Granted
Determining an occupancy status of a vehicle seat
AssigneeFord Global Technologies, LLC
InventorsColm Boran, Mark Crawford, Douglas Scott Rhode
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A computer that may be programmed to: in response to receiving an indication that a vehicle is approaching a geofence boundary, retract slack in a webbing associated with a seat in the vehicle by actuating a seatbelt retractor; then receive measurement data from one or more sensors associated with the seat; using the data, determine whether an occupant occupies the seat; and when no occupant occupies the seat, then transmit an instruction to stop the vehicle.
Claims10
A computer, comprising:
- a processor and memory storing instructions, the instructions comprising, to:
- operate a vehicle in a geofence region in a fully autonomous mode, wherein the geofence region is within a geofence boundary that defines a periphery of the geofence region;
- determine that the vehicle is approaching the geofence boundary;
- and
- based on determining that the vehicle is approaching the geofence boundary, determine whether attempt to hand-off control to a driver of the vehicle or to stop the vehicle by:
- determining whether the driver occupies a driver's seat of the vehicle by:
- retracting slack in a webbing associated with the driver's seat by actuating a seatbelt retractor, and
- using data from a seatbelt payout sensor and a seat position sensor, determining a length (LUSED) of the webbing extended from the retractor;
- and
- when the driver is determined to occupy the driver's seat, then attempting to hand-off control of the vehicle to the driver;
- and
- when the driver is determined to not occupy the driver's seat, then transmit an instruction to stop the vehicle.
9 more elements
A method, comprising:
- operating a vehicle in a geofence region in a fully autonomous mode, wherein the geofence region is within a geofence boundary that defines a periphery of the geofence region;
- determining that the vehicle is approaching a geofence boundary;
- and
- based on determining that the vehicle is approaching the geofence boundary, determining to either to hand-off control of the vehicle to a driver of the vehicle or to stop the vehicle, wherein determining whether to hand-off control or to stop the vehicle comprises:
- determining whether the driver occupies a driver's seat of the vehicle by:
- retracting slack in a webbing associated with the driver's seat by actuating a seatbelt retractor;
- and then
- using data from a seatbelt payout sensor and a seat position sensor, determining a length (LUSED) of the webbing extended from the retractor.
5 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.