Energy absorbing structure for vehicle body side portion

An energy absorbing structure for a vehicle body side portion, comprising:

• a pair of vehicle body members constituting two side portions of a vehicle body;
• a pair of collision detection means for respectively detecting collisions on two side surfaces of the vehicle body;
• a pair of air bags which are mounted in each of said vehicle body members, can be unfolded toward an interior of a passenger room, and can receive at least one passenger who is moved sideways by a side collision in an unfolded state;
• timing varying means for changing unfolding timings of the four air bags in accordance with a side-collision direction on the basis of detection results from said collision detection means;
• and
• air bag unfolding means for unfolding the air bags in accordance with the unfolding timings set by said timing varying means.

An energy absorbing structure for a vehicle body side portion, comprising:

• a pair of vehicle body members constituting two side portions of a vehicle body;
• a pair of collision detection means for respectively detecting collisions on two side surfaces of the vehicle body;
• one air bag which is mounted in each of said vehicle body members, a portion of which can be unfolded toward an interior of a passenger room as a first air bag portion having a standard size, the remaining portion of which can be unfolded as a second air bag portion larger than the first air bag portion, and which can receive at least one passenger who is moved sideways by a side collision in an unfolded state of each of the first and second air bag portions;
• timing varying means for changing unfolding timings of the four air bag portions in accordance with a side-collision direction on the basis of detection results from said collision detection means;
• and
• air bag unfolding means for unfolding the air bag portions in accordance with the unfolding timings set by said timing varying means.

An energy absorbing structure for a vehicle body side portion, comprising:

• a pair of vehicle body members constituting two side portions of a vehicle body;
• a pair of collision detection means for respectively detecting collisions on two side surfaces of the vehicle body;
• a pair of large and small air bags which are mounted in each of said vehicle body members, can be independently unfolded toward an interior of a passenger room, and can receive at least one passenger who is moved sideways by a side collision in an unfolded state;
• timing varying means for changing timings up to fully unfolded states of the four air bags in accordance with a side-collision direction on the basis of detection results from said collision detection means;
• and
• air bag unfolding means for unfolding the air bags in accordance with the timings set by said timing varying means.