US 2003/0114971 A1Published application

Vehicle occupant restraint deployment control with lateral velocity responsive upgrade

OwnerChristopher Michael Caruso, David L. Nelson +4inventors

InventorsChristopher Michael Caruso, David L. Nelson, Russell L. Simpson, Brian Scott Kvapil, Timothy Michael O'Malley, Mary Jane Olsavsky

Life of this patent

Estimating the term…

patentgrep

Loading patent…

Abstract

A vehicle occupant restraint deployment control for a multi-stage restraint senses a longitudinal acceleration of a vehicle passenger compartment and generates a first stage deployment signal in response to a predetermined value of a longitudinal velocity derived from the longitudinal acceleration. The control is further responsive to a sensed lateral acceleration of the vehicle passenger compartment to generate a second stage deployment signal, provided that the first stage deployment signal has also been generated.

Claims8

Dependent claims

A method for deploying a vehicle occupant restraint comprising the steps:

sensing a longitudinal acceleration of a vehicle passenger compartment;
processing the longitudinal acceleration to provide a first stage deployment function signal;
generating a first stage deployment signal based on a predetermined criterion of the first stage deployment function signal;
sensing a lateral acceleration of the vehicle passenger compartment;
generating a second stage deployment signal based on a predetermined criterion of the sensed lateral acceleration of the vehicle passenger compartment;
deploying the restraint in a first stage deployment dependent on the generation of the first stage deployment signal;
and
deploying the restraint in a second stage deployment dependent at least on the generation of the second stage deployment signal.

5 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.