A passenger seat occupancy alert system for a vehicle is disclosed herein. The passenger seat occupancy alert system for a vehicle includes at least one sensor, a detection means, an in-vehicle display device, a speaker, and a controller. The passenger seat occupancy alert system is useful for sensing passenger occupancy of a vehicle and producing an alert.

An electronic start system for an agricultural machine is configured to enable the machine to stop the engine while continuing to power onboard electronics and start the engine so long as one or more sensed conditions are met. The system can include a key lock operated by a physical key held by an operator and a button which can be pressed by the operator. The system can also include one or more sensors disposed on the machine for detecting various conditions. When the key is turned on, power can be provided to the onboard electronics, regardless of the state of the engine. Thereafter, when the button is pressed, the engine can be turned on if the one or more sensed conditions are satisfied, such as detecting a closed door, an operator in a seat, an activated brake, and so forth.

A mounted object detection device includes: a load sensor in which a plurality of sensor parts each configured to detect a load are disposed in a matrix shape; and a controller configured to detect a situation of a mounted object on the load sensor on the basis of an output from the load sensor. The controller: detects a load distribution on a detection region of the load sensor on the basis of an output from the load sensor; discerns which of a person or animal and a thing the mounted object is, on the basis of the load distribution; and when having discerned that the mounted object is a thing, discerns whether or not a person or an animal is mounted on the thing, on the basis of temporal change in the load distribution.

An automatic driving vehicle includes an automatic driving mode in which autonomous traveling is carried out. The automatic driving vehicle receives a setting for a behavior after getting out from the automatic driving vehicle. The setting includes information of a destination and a time period and/or a clock time which are designated by a user of the automatic driving vehicle. The automatic driving vehicle is controlled based on the information to automatically drive to the destination by an appointed time.

Various systems and methods are provided for determining a posture of an occupant of a vehicle. In one embodiment, a method comprises capturing images of an occupant in a vehicle via a vehicle camera, determining a current posture of the occupant and a recommended posture for the occupant based on the captured images and body measurements of the occupant, and outputting a guidance based on a difference between the current posture and the recommended posture. In this way, a comfort of the occupant may be increased by guiding the occupant toward a more ergonomic posture.

A pressure sensing system (24), seat cushion (20) incorporating the pressure sensing system, and method of sensing a weight group associated with an occupant of an automotive seat are described. The pressure sensing system includes a layer of an electrically conductive foam (28) and a flexible printed circuit (26) that includes a flexible substrate (26a) and N horizontal sensing wires (26b) and M vertical sensing wires (26c) securely placed on a top surface of the flexible substrate. The horizontal sensing wires intersect with the vertical sensing wires and form N?M intersections. The layer of an electrically conductive foam is placed on top of the N horizontal sensing wires and the M vertical sensing wires. When a pressure is applied to the layer of the electrically conductive foam, each intersection generates in real time an electric flux density value to reflect a degree of a compression caused by the pressure to a corresponding point of the electrically conductive foam.

Provided are a vehicle control device and a vehicle control method for keeping necessary functions effective until an occupant gets out of a vehicle. The vehicle control device include a vehicle exit detection part configured to detect a timing at which the occupant gets out of the vehicle, in accordance with a vehicle exit detection signal from a vehicle exit detector set in advance, and a power supply control part configured to control, when the timing at which the occupant gets out of the vehicle is detected by the vehicle exit detection part, a power supply control device so as to carry out any one of: shutting off a power supply to an in-vehicle device installed on the vehicle, thereby bringing the in-vehicle device into a stop state; and supplying a standby voltage to the in-vehicle device, thereby bringing the in-vehicle device into a sleep state.

A vehicle seat includes a seat bottom and a seat back coupled to the seat bottom to extend away from the seat bottom. The seat back includes a backrest an a headrest coupled to the backrest to locate the backrest between the headrest and the seat bottom.

A method of adjusting a vehicle seat includes detecting one of a current position of a vehicle occupant in a vehicle seat with one of a pressure sensitive fabric, a sound transmitter and transducer, and an electromagnetic field transmitter and transducer. A comfortable position is determined of the vehicle occupant. The vehicle seat is adjusted from the current position to the comfortable position. A vehicle seat assembly is also disclosed.

A system comprising: a heater located within a steering wheel and a heater located within a vehicle seat; wherein the steering wheel is a first plate and the vehicle seat is a second plate and a shift in a signal is monitored from the first plate, the second plate, or both so that a presence and absence of an occupant is detected, and wherein the heater in the steering wheel and the heater in the vehicle seat are a sensor.