Motor vehicle with height determination for automatically opening tailgate

A motor vehicle, the motor vehicle comprising:

• a tailgate hinged to a upper side of a rear portion of the vehicle;
• an actuator to open the tailgate;
• a control system to regulate the actuator to open and close the tailgate;
• a user detection system to detect a person approaching the vehicle;
• the user detection system including an ultra-wide band signal device and a video camera, the user detection system being configured to detect a height of the approaching person using ultra-wide band signals from the ultra-wide band signal device in combination with video data captured by the video camera;
• and
• the user detection system communicating with the control system to open the tailgate at a level that is above the height of the approaching person.

A method for automatically opening a tailgate of a motor vehicle comprising the steps of:

• detecting a person approaching the motor vehicle;
• detecting a height of the person approaching the vehicle using ultra-wide band signals;
• determining if the person approaching the motor vehicle is an authorized user to operate the land vehicle using the ultra-wide band signals;
• opening the tailgate to a level that is above the height of the approaching person but less than fully open.