Detecting presence of a person in a non-running vehicle
AssigneeFord Global Technologies, LLC
InventorsGopichandra Surnilla, Karl Clark, Sergey Poberezhnyy, Richard E. Soltis, Clay Wesley Maranville
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method, comprising during a vehicle off condition comprising when a vehicle engine is off, and the vehicle is parked, measuring a humidity of a vehicle cabin, and determining a presence of a passenger in the vehicle based on the humidity of the vehicle cabin. In some examples, cabin air may be circulated for a duration prior to the determination. The method may further include adjusting operation of an HVAC system of the vehicle responsive to a determination of a presence of a passenger in the vehicle.
Claims17
A method, comprising:
- during a vehicle off condition comprising when a vehicle engine is off, and a vehicle is parked,
- adjusting a condition responsive to a determination of a passenger presence in a vehicle cabin, the determination based on a sun load and further based on changes in relative humidity and specific humidity in the cabin, including an increase in the specific humidity and a decrease in the relative humidity over an interval.
(canceled)
A system, comprising:
- a vehicle with an HVAC system;
- a relative humidity sensor;
- a controller comprising executable instructions for adjusting the HVAC system based on a relative humidity in a vehicle cabin sensed by the sensor and a specific humidity in the cabin calculated based on the relative humidity to provide an operator-indicated cabin environmental condition during a first vehicle on mode, and during a vehicle off mode, adjusting the HVAC system responsive to a determination of a passenger presence in the vehicle, the determination based on a sun load and further based on changes in the relative humidity and the specific humidity, including an increase in the specific humidity and a decrease in the relative humidity over an interval, the increase in the specific humidity being greater than a threshold increase in specific humidity over the interval.
A method, comprising:
- during a vehicle off condition,
- responsive to a determination of a passenger presence in a vehicle cabin, the determination based on a sun load, and further based on changes in relative humidity and specific humidity in the cabin, including an increase in the specific humidity and a decrease in the relative humidity over an interval, the increase in the specific humidity being greater than a threshold increase in specific humidity over the interval.
- sending a notification based on the threshold increase, and
- operating an HVAC system to control a vehicle cabin temperature below a threshold temperature.
A method, comprising:
- during a vehicle off condition,
- responsive to a determination of a passenger presence in a vehicle cabin, the determination based on a sun load, and further based on changes in relative humidity and specific humidity in the cabin, including an increase in the specific humidity and a decrease in the relative humidity over an interval, and further based on a change in a difference between an outdoor ambient humidity and the relative humidity, operating a vehicle HVAC system to control a vehicle cabin temperature below a threshold temperature.
A method comprising:
- during a passenger present condition,
- operating a vehicle HVAC system to control a temperature in a vehicle
- cabin, the passenger present condition determined based on a sun load and on changes in relative humidity and specific humidity in the cabin, including an increase in the specific humidity and a decrease in the relative humidity over an interval, the increase greater than a threshold increase in specific humidity over the interval.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.