Vehicle comprising a door opening warning system
AssigneeNingbo Geely Automobile Research & Development Co.
InventorsMats Thorngren, Max Olle Cavallin
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A vehicle includes a door, an inside door handle, and a door opening warning system having an object sensor that detects an object outside the vehicle in a door collision risk zone, a touchless sensor that detects if a part of a user is positioned in an opening zone at the inside door handle and a touch sensor that detects if the user touches the inside door handle, and a control unit. The control unit triggers a first alarm if the object sensor detects an object in the risk zone and the touchless sensor detects a part of the user in the opening zone at the inside door handle, and triggers a second alarm if the object sensor detects an object in the risk zone and the touch sensor detects that the user is touching the inside door handle.
Claims18
A vehicle, comprising:
- a door, the door moveable between an open position and a closed position, and comprising at least one inside door handle for opening the door, and
- a door opening warning system comprising at least one object sensor configured to detect an object outside the vehicle in a risk zone in which there is a risk of the object colliding with the door if the door is moved from the closed position to the open position, a touchless sensor configured to detect a part of a user positioned within a predetermined opening zone adjacent the inside door handle, a touch sensor configured to detect that the user touches the inside door handle, and a control unit connected to the at least one object sensor, the touchless sensor and the touch sensor,
- wherein the control unit of the door opening warning system is configured to:
- a) determine a type of the object detected by the object sensor and regulate a size of the risk zone accordingly to the determined type of the detected object,
- b) trigger a first alarm if the object sensor detects the object in the size-regulated risk zone and the touchless sensor detects the part of the user within the predetermined opening zone adjacent the inside door handle, and
- c) trigger a second alarm if the object sensor detects the object in the size-regulated risk zone and the touch sensor detects that the user is touching the inside door handle.
A method for operating the vehicle, the vehicle having a door, the door moveable between an open position and a closed position, at least one inside door handle for opening the door, and a door opening warning system including at least one object sensor configured to detect an object outside the vehicle in a risk zone in which there is a risk of the object colliding with the door if the door is moved from the closed position to the open position, a touchless sensor configured to detect a part of a user positioned within a predetermined opening zone adjacent the inside door handle, a touch sensor configured to detect that the user touches the inside door handle, and a control unit connected to the at least one object sensor, the touchless sensor and the touch sensor, the method comprising the steps of:
- detecting, by the object sensor, that the object is in the risk zone, determining the type of the object detected by the object sensor and regulating the size of the risk zone according to the determined type of the identified object,
- detecting, by the touchless sensor, that a part of the user is within the predetermined opening zone adjacent the inside door handle and, in response, triggering a first alarm, and
- detecting, by the touch sensor, that the user is touching the inside door handle and, in response, triggering a second alarm.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.