Seatbelt airbag

A vehicle safety system for helping to protect an occupant of a vehicle seat, comprising:

• a seatbelt extensible around the occupant to help restrain the occupant in the vehicle seat, the seatbelt comprising a lap belt configured to extend across the occupant at the hips;
• an airbag secured to the lap belt and configured to inflate and deploy upward from the lap belt to a deployed position in front of the occupant, wherein the system is configured to actively adjust the deployed position of the airbag relative to the belted occupant in response to the position of the occupant at the time of deployment;
• and
• an inflator for inflating the airbag, a sensor for sensing the occurrence of an event for which airbag deployment is desired, and a controller operatively connected to the sensor and the inflator, wherein the controller is configured to actuate the inflator in response to the sensor sensing the occurrence of the event for which airbag deployment is desired, wherein the controller is further configured to control the operation of an actuatable device to adjust the deployed position of the airbag in response to the size of the occupant, wherein the actuatable device comprises an actuatable tether that connects a base portion of the airbag to the lap belt to maintain pleats in a base portion of the airbag, the tether being actuatable to release the pleats to unfold in response to airbag inflation, which causes the airbag to move relative to the lap belt to adjust the deployed position of the airbag.

A vehicle safety system for helping to protect an occupant of a vehicle seat, comprising:

• a seatbelt extensible around the occupant to help restrain the occupant in the vehicle seat, the seatbelt comprising a lap belt configured to extend across the occupant at the hips;
• an airbag secured to the lap belt and configured to inflate and deploy upward from the lap belt to a deployed position in front of the occupant, wherein the system is configured to actively adjust the deployed position of the airbag relative to the belted occupant in response to the position of the occupant at the time of deployment;
• and
• an inflator for inflating the airbag, a sensor for sensing the occurrence of an event for which airbag deployment is desired, and a controller operatively connected to the sensor and the inflator, wherein the controller is configured to actuate the inflator in response to the sensor sensing the occurrence of the event for which airbag deployment is desired, wherein the controller is further configured to control the operation of an actuatable device to adjust the deployed position of the airbag in response to the size of the occupant, wherein the vehicle safety system further comprises:
• an actuatable seatbelt retractor actuatable to payout and retract seatbelt webbing in response to the controller;
• an actuatable seatbelt anchor for anchoring an end of the seatbelt webbing to the vehicle, the actuatable seatbelt anchor being actuatable to adjust its position relative to the vehicle seat;
• and
• an actuatable seatbelt latch for receiving a seatbelt buckle to secure the lap belt and shoulder belt extending across the vehicle, the actuatable seatbelt latch being actuatable to adjust its position relative to the vehicle seat;
• wherein the controller is configured to control the actuatable seatbelt retractor, seatbelt anchor, and seatbelt latch to position the airbag in response to the occupant size so that the airbag is centered with respect to the occupant.