Vehicle occupant protection apparatus
First Claim
1. An occupant protection apparatus for a vehicle, comprising:
- driver-seat seatbelt tension changing means for changing a tension applied to a driver-seat seatbelt provided to a driver seat of the vehicle;
passenger-seat seatbelt tension changing means for changing a tension applied to a passenger-seat seatbelt provided to a seat other than said driver seat;
crash predicting means for predicting a crash of said vehicle; and
belt tension controlling means for controlling said driver-seat seatbelt tension changing means and said passenger-seat seatbelt tension changing means so as to increase the tension applied to each of said driver-seat seatbelt and said passenger-seat seatbelt when said crash predicting means determines that there is a possibility of a vehicle crash, and set the tension applied to said driver-seat seatbelt to always be smaller than the tension applied to said passenger-seat seatbelt.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An occupant protection apparatus appropriately protects occupants of a vehicle, when a vehicle crush occurs, without requiring a troublesome task to the occupants. The occupant protection apparatus is provided with a steering angle sensor, a distance sensor and a brake depressing amount sensor. An electronic control unit predicts a vehicle crash based on the detection signals of each sensor so as to set a tension applied to a driver seat seatbelt to be smaller than a tension applied to passenger seat seatbelts. Additionally, the electronic control unit increases the tension applied to the seatbelts when a temperature detected by an outside-temperature detection sensor and/or an inside-temperature detection sensor is low.
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Citations
6 Claims
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1. An occupant protection apparatus for a vehicle, comprising:
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driver-seat seatbelt tension changing means for changing a tension applied to a driver-seat seatbelt provided to a driver seat of the vehicle; passenger-seat seatbelt tension changing means for changing a tension applied to a passenger-seat seatbelt provided to a seat other than said driver seat; crash predicting means for predicting a crash of said vehicle; and belt tension controlling means for controlling said driver-seat seatbelt tension changing means and said passenger-seat seatbelt tension changing means so as to increase the tension applied to each of said driver-seat seatbelt and said passenger-seat seatbelt when said crash predicting means determines that there is a possibility of a vehicle crash, and set the tension applied to said driver-seat seatbelt to always be smaller than the tension applied to said passenger-seat seatbelt. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4)
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5. A seatbelt tension control method of controlling a tension applied to seatbelts of a vehicle, the method comprising:
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predicting a crash of said vehicle; judging whether a driver-seat seatbelt provided to a driver seat is worn; increasing the tension applied to said driver-seat seatbelt when there is a possibility of a vehicle crash and also when said driver-seat seatbelt is worn; judging whether a seatbelt provided to a seat other than said driver seat is worn; and increasing the tension applied to said seatbelt provided to said seat other than said driver-seat seatbelt when there is a possibility of a vehicle crash and also when said seatbelt provided to said seat other than said driver-seat seatbelt is worn, and set the tension applied to said driver-seat seatbelt to always be smaller than the tension applied to said passenger-seat seatbelt. - View Dependent Claims (6)
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Specification