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US 9,227,531 B2Granted
Autonomous vehicle with reconfigurable seats
AssigneeFord Global Technologies, LLC
InventorsMark A. Cuddihy, Manoharprasad K. Rao
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A vehicle includes a passenger compartment and a bench seat located in the passenger compartment. The bench seat has a bottom portion and a back portion and is configured to move from a front-facing position to a rear-facing position by moving the back portion toward a front of the passenger compartment for when the vehicle is operating in an autonomous mode.
Claims17
A vehicle system comprising:
- an airbag;
- and
- a first row bench seat including a bottom portion and a back portion;
- wherein the bench seat is configured to move from a front-facing position to a rear-facing position by moving the back portion toward a front of the passenger compartment, and wherein the bench seat is configured to stay in the rear-facing position while a host vehicle is operating in an autonomous mode,
- wherein the airbag is located behind the bench seat when the bench seat is in the front-facing position and in front of the bench seat when the bench seat is in the rear-facing position, wherein the airbag is deployed only when the bench seat is in the rear-facing position.
2 more elements
A vehicle comprising:
- autonomous driving sensors;
- an autonomous controller configured to receive signals generated by the autonomous driving sensors and control at least one vehicle subsystems according to the signals;
- a passenger compartment;
- a front row bench seat located in the passenger compartment, the bench seat including a bottom portion and a back portion, wherein the bench seat is configured to move from a front-facing position to a rear-facing position by moving the back portion toward a front of the passenger compartment, and wherein the bench seat is configured to stay in the rear-facing position while the vehicle is moving;
- and
- an airbag located in the passenger compartment behind the bench seat in the front-facing position and in front of the bench seat when in the rear-facing position, wherein the airbag is deployed only when the bench seat is in the rear-facing position.
3 more elements
A vehicle comprising:
- autonomous driving sensors;
- an autonomous controller configured to receive signals generated by the autonomous driving sensors and control at least one vehicle subsystems according to the signals;
- a passenger compartment having a steering wheel;
- a first row bench seat located in the passenger compartment, the bench seat including a bottom portion and a back portion;
- wherein the back portion of the bench seat is configured to pivot about an axis defined by the bottom portion toward a front of the passenger compartment to move the bench seat from a front-facing position to a rear-facing position, and wherein the bench seat is configured to stay in the rear-facing position while the vehicle is moving, and wherein the steering wheel is configured to move toward the front of the passenger compartment before the bench seat is moved to the rear-facing position;
- a motor operably attached to the bench seat and configured to move the bench seat to at least one of the rear-facing position and the front-facing position;
- and
- an airbag located in the passenger compartment behind the bench seat in the front-facing position and in front of the bench seat when in the rear-facing position, wherein the airbag is deployed only when the bench seat is in the rear-facing position.
5 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.