Side impact safety system with blind-spot detection radar data fusion

A method of operating an occupant safety system of a motor vehicle in response to a side impact comprising:

• operating a remote object detection sensor to detect a blind-spot threat object in a first sector rearward of the sensor and to detect a collision threat object in a second sector forward of the sensor;
• calculating an approach vector of the collision threat object;
• determining, based on the approach vector, that the collision threat object is likely to impact a side impact portion of the vehicle;
• in response to the determination, establishing a side impact threshold value based at least in part upon the approach vector, the threshold value being less than a contact-only threshold value applied when approach vector information is not available;
• operating a side impact sensor to detect an impact on the side impact portion of the vehicle and determine a magnitude of the impact;
• comparing the magnitude of the impact with the threshold value;
• and
• activating the occupant safety device if the magnitude of the impact exceeds the threshold value.

A method of operating an occupant safety system of a motor vehicle in response to a side impact comprising:

• operating an impact sensor to detect a magnitude of an impact on a side impact portion of the vehicle;
• activating an occupant safety device if the impact magnitude exceeds a contact-only threshold value;
• operating a blind spot detection sensor to detect an object in a forward quadrant relative to the vehicle;
• determining, based on information from the blind spot detection sensor, that the object is likely to impact the side impact portion of the vehicle;
• establishing a side impact threshold value based at least in part upon the information from the blind spot detection sensor, the threshold value being less than a contact-only threshold value applied when information from the blind spot detector is not available;
• determining a magnitude of the impact and comparing the magnitude with the threshold value;
• and
• activating the occupant safety device if the magnitude of the impact exceeds the predictive threshold value.