Easy entrance/exit system for a vehicle

The easy entrance/exit system of claim 6, wherein the pad includes a low-friction underside and a high-friction topside.

The easy entrance/exit system of claim 6, wherein the seat-side magnet is a permanent magnet configured to permanently apply a magnetic field to the pad-side magnet to create a rotary coupling that mounts the pad to the seat base at the pivot point and allows swiveling of the pad about the pivot point.

The easy entrance/exit system of claim 6, wherein the pad-side magnetic element is a first pad-side magnetic element, and wherein the seat-side magnet is a first seat-side magnet, and further comprising:

• a second pad-side magnetic element integrated with the pad offset from the pivot point;
• and
• a second seat-side magnet within the seat base offset from the pivot point, wherein the second seat-side magnet is configured to apply a magnetic field to second pad-side magnetic element to create a moment arm that attenuates swiveling of the pad about the pivot point. 10. The easy entrance/exit system of claim 9, wherein the first seat-side magnet is an electromagnet that is selectively operable to apply a magnetic field to the second pad-side magnetic element, wherein the second seat-side magnet is an electromagnet that is selectively operable to apply a magnetic field to the second pad-side magnetic element, wherein activation of the first seat-side magnet and activation of the second seat-side magnet attenuates swiveling of the pad about the pivot point and wherein activation of the first seat-side magnet and deactivation of the second seat-side magnet promotes swiveling of the pad about the pivot point.

The easy entrance/exit system of claim 10, further comprising:

• at least one computing device connected to the second seat-side magnet, the at least one computing device configured to receive an attenuation signal, and, responsive to receiving the attenuation signal, activate the second seat-side magnet to attenuate swiveling of the pad about the pivot point.

The easy entrance/exit system of claim 10, further comprising:

• at least one computing device connected to the second seat-side magnet, the at least one computing device configured to receive a promotion signal, and, responsive to receiving the promotion signal, deactivate the second seat-side magnet to promote swiveling of the pad about the pivot point.

The easy entrance/exit system of claim 15, wherein the seat-side magnet is an electromagnet selectively operable to apply a magnetic field to the rotary bearing, and wherein operation of the seat-side magnet changes the flow resistance of the magnetorheological damping fluid, thereby governing swiveling of the pad about the pivot point

The easy entrance/exit system of claim 16, further comprising:

• at least one computing device connected to the seat-side magnet, the at least one computing device configured to receive a promotion signal, and, responsive to receiving the promotion signal, operate the seat-side magnet to promote swiveling of the pad about the pivot point. 20. The easy entrance/exit system of claim 19, wherein the promotion signal is indicative of at least one of the vehicle being in park and at least one door of the vehicle being open.