A vehicle air conditioner is disclosed. The present invention provides the vehicle air conditioner, which: can directly control the amount of air passing through an evaporator and a heater core since a blower is disposed between the evaporator and the heater core; has front and rear seat discharge units respectively having heater cores, thereby having a simple form, minimizing energy consumption, and independently enabling four or more zones, including front and rear seats, the left and right of the front seats, and the left and right of the rear seats, to be air-conditioned; and can discharge an offensive smell to the outside during initial driving of a vehicle since the air outside a vehicle, flowing in from an air inlet, and indoor air flowing in from an inside air suction port, disposed at the center of the vehicle, are discharged to the outside of the vehicle by means of a second blower, and not by a front seat blower, for discharging the air to the rear seats.

An air conditioning system for a seat, comprising an arm rest (4a, 4b) of the seat, the arm rest having a top side, an inner wall, an outer wall, a front end, and a back end defining a hollow interior between them, means for providing air conditioned to a desired temperature, from an air source to the hollow interior of the arm rest, and a plurality of nozzles formed through the inner wall, defined between a nozzle inlet on an inner surface of the inner wall facing into the hollow interior and a nozzle outlet on an outer surface of the inner wall facing towards a seating area of a person when sitting in the seat, the nozzles providing a path through which air flows from the hollow interior, into the nozzle inlet and out of the nozzle outlet.

Features for a vapor compression system configured to cool and/or heat (i.e. thermally condition) two or more distinct climate controlled vehicle interior components via a common thermal bus are disclosed. Some embodiments employ a single compressor. Some embodiments employ multiple compressors and/or thermal buses, each servicing components located within respective interior thermal zones of a vehicle, for example a front row seat zone, second and/or third row seat zones, and/or an overhead zone and/or a trunk zone.

Systems and methods are provided for determining, by processing circuitry, a vehicle occupant has left a seat of a vehicle (or the seat is unoccupied), and in response to determining the vehicle occupant has left the seat (or the seat is unoccupied), causing a heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system of the vehicle to thermally store energy in the seat.

An air conditioning system for a vehicle that air conditions a vehicle cabin before a user gets into a vehicle, in which the air conditioning system strongly air conditions the vehicle cabin by increasing an air conditioning output for a predetermined period after the user gets into the vehicle.

A vehicle microclimate system includes a microclimate device that is configured to be arranged within an interior space that provides a macroclimate environment to an occupant. The microclimate device is configured to provide a microclimate environment to the occupant. The microclimate device is configured to be in close proximity to a region of the occupant having an increased thermoreceptive response compared to other occupant regions exposed to the macroclimate environment. A controller is in communication with the microclimate device. The controller is configured to determine an occupant personal comfort and automatically command the microclimate device in response to the occupant personal comfort to achieve a desired occupant personal comfort.

An apparatus includes an interface and a processor. The interface may be configured to receive video frames corresponding to an interior of a vehicle. The processor may be configured to perform video operations on the video frames to detect objects in the video frames, detect a driver based on the objects detected in the video frames, detect a use of an electronic device by the driver and generate a notification signal. The notification signal may be configured to warn the driver about using the electronic device in the vehicle. The notification signal may be generated if the use of the electronic device is unauthorized. The processor may comprise a dedicated hardware module configured to perform feature detection to calculate descriptors for determining a likelihood that pixels of the video frames belong to the objects that correspond to the use of the electronic device by the driver.

In an example embodiment, a controller controls the HVAC system, dampers, fans, and heater/coolers in seats to heat or cool the interior and the seats to a desired temperature. The controller may control the temperature and/or the flow of air through a plurality of ducts and the heater/coolers in the seats to heat or cool regions of the interior and the seats to a desired temperature.

An air-conditioning system includes a vehicle air-conditioner which uses a target blowing-out temperature as the basis to control an air outlet temperature in a cabin and a seat air-conditioning unit which sucks recirculated air into a seat. The air-conditioning system controls at least the seat air-conditioning air flow per unit time so as to perform seat air-conditioning. The air-conditioning system increases the seat air-conditioning air flow when detecting that the vehicle speed is stopped or idling, calculates a correction amount for the target blowing-out temperature considered neutral in warmness sense level for the increased seat air-conditioning air flow, and uses the correction amount as the basis to correct the target blowing-out temperature.

A fluid distribution device that includes a distributor housing having at least one fluid inlet opening and at least one fluid outlet opening; and at least one rotary, elongated hollow element having a wall that has one or more fluid-passage openings, a fluid flow through the distributor housing is changed by rotating the at least one hollow element.