The invention describes a vehicle occupant restraint system (2) comprising a control unit and at least two restraint elements (8, 10) for the protection of lower extremities (6, 6′, 7, 7′) in the area of a footwell (4) of a vehicle of a vehicle occupant seated in a particular vehicle seat of the vehicle, wherein a first restraint element (8) is configured as a knee airbag module (12), wherein a second restraint element (10) is provided for mounting into the footwell (4) of the vehicle, especially in an area of the footwell (4) of the vehicle arranged in the vehicle longitudinal direction (x) ahead of the knee airbag module (12), wherein, in a situation of restraint, the control unit can differentiate between different situations, wherein the control unit, in the situation of restraint, activates at least the first restraint element (8) and, depending on the given situation, additionally activates the second restraint element (10) and/or a partial element of the first restraint element (8) and/or a partial element of the second restraint element (10).

In a physical state sharable seat, a sensor is configured to acquire a measurement value specific to a physical state of an occupant seated on the seat body; and a controller connected to the sensor and thereby allowed to acquire the measurement value from the sensor is configured to be capable of communicating with other equipment. The controller includes: an evaluation unit configured to compute an evaluation value on the physical state, based on the measurement value; an evaluation value presentation unit configured to present the evaluation value at a terminal to be used by the occupant; a shared data acquisition unit configured to acquire an other-occupant evaluation value that is an evaluation value on a physical state of another person, acquired either by the evaluation unit or from another physical state sharable seat; and a shared data presentation unit configured to present the other-occupant evaluation value at the terminal.

The present disclosure provides a foot support device for a footwell of a vehicle. The present disclosure includes a plurality of support elements arranged one behind the other and rotatably connected to one another. The plurality of support elements can each move from a rest position to an active position upon the detection of a predetermined driving situation. When set in the rest position, the plurality of support elements are each arranged parallel to the floor of the footwell, and when set in the active position, the plurality of support elements are each inclined with respect to the floor of the footwell to support at least one foot of an occupant. The foot support device includes a drive arrangement lifting at least a foremost support element to the active position, which causes movement of a subsequent support element.

A system and method for evaluating and reporting of trauma to organs of passengers in a vehicular crash in real time is provided. The systems and methods include and use one or more in-vehicle sensors, a processor, a server, and one or more non-transitory computer-readable media to analyze a crash and trauma to passengers. The systems and methods may be further configured to optimize operation of a vehicle to minimize trauma.

Aspects of the disclosure relate to reducing the likelihood of injury to a passenger in a collision. In one example, a computing device may determine that an impact between a vehicle and an object external to the vehicle is imminent. The computing device may determine a protection range for a vehicle's airbag based on characteristics of the passenger, including the passenger's seating location within the vehicle. An airbag extension system may position an airbag package, including the vehicle's airbag, such that the vehicle's airbag is within the protection range of the passenger's seating location.

A pneumatic identification apparatus for the body weight of a seat occupant includes a control unit and at least one sensing apparatus each including a pneumatic sensing apparatus and an auxiliary sensing apparatus; the pneumatic sensing apparatus includes at least one soft elastic hollow structure body and a sensing unit; the soft elastic hollow structure body communicates with a first air pressure sensor, the first air pressure sensor being configured to measure a first air pressure value P.sub.a in the soft elastic hollow structure body; the control unit is configured to compare the first air pressure value P.sub.a with standard set values and correspondingly output a body weight type; and the auxiliary sensing apparatus includes a top pressure-bearing plate and a bottom carrying plate respectively mounted on two end faces of the soft elastic hollow structure body. Further provided is a pneumatic identification seat provided with the pneumatic identification apparatus.

A capacitive sensor includes: a substrate that is in the form of a sheet; and a sensor electrode that is capacitive and disposed on a frontside of the substrate. The sensor electrode is a conductive fabric made by applying a metal plating on a mesh fabric that is woven of a plurality of warps and a plurality of wefts and that has openings each formed by two adjacent warps among the plurality of warps and two adjacent wefts among the plurality of wefts. An area defined by a maximum outside diameter of a warp or weft is smaller than an area of an opening space of each of the openings.

The present disclosure relates to an occupancy sensing mat for a vehicle seat comprising a flexible support and an occupancy detection sensor carried by the flexible support, the occupancy detection sensor being a capacitive transducer with coplanar interdigitated electrodes comprising a first electrode and a second electrode, the first electrode and the second electrode each comprising a rod and fingers integral with the rod.

An assembly includes a first seat and a second seat spaced from the first seat. The assembly includes an airbag supported by the first seat. The airbag is inflatable to an inflated position between the seats. The airbag has a main chamber, a pair secondary chambers supported by the main chamber, and a tether releasably connected to the secondary chambers. The secondary chambers are maintained by the tether in an undeployed position relative to the main chamber and the secondary chambers are releasable by the tether to a deployed position in a cross-vehicle direction relative to the main chamber. The assembly includes a computer including a processor and a memory storing instructions executable by the processor to identify that an occupant is seated in the first seat, identify that an occupant is seated in the second seat and release the tether based on the identification of the occupants seated seats.

Aspects of the disclosure provide systems and methods for recognizing an assigned passenger. For instance, dispatching instructions to pick up a passenger at a pickup location are received. The instructions include authentication information for authenticating a client computing device associated with the passenger. A vehicle is maneuvered in an autonomous driving mode towards the pickup location. The client device is then authenticated. After authentication, a set of pedestrians within a predetermined distance of the vehicle are identified from sensor information generated by a sensor of the vehicle and location information is received over a period of time from the client device. The received location information is used to estimate a velocity of the passenger. This estimated velocity is used to identify a subset of set of pedestrians that is likely to be the passenger. The vehicle is stopped to allow the passenger to enter the vehicle based on the subset.