An occupant detection apparatus includes: a sensor electrode; a conductor portion facing the sensor electrode; a moving object that moves by input of a seat load loaded on a seat and changes an electrostatic capacitance between the sensor electrode and the conductor portion; and a signal output unit that outputs a sensor signal based on the electrostatic capacitance.

A profile for an occupant is stored. The profile includes a plurality of clusters of sitting positions for the occupant in a seat and classifications of respective clusters as preferred or nonpreferred. Respective clusters are classified as preferred or nonpreferred based on sitting scores for the respective sitting positions in that cluster. A higher sitting score increases a likelihood of the classification being preferred. A series of pressure maps indicating a respective series of sitting positions of the occupant in the seat are received. The pressure maps include a current pressure map. One of the sitting positions is assigned to one of the clusters that is classified as preferred in response to the sitting score of that sitting position being greater than a threshold score. A physical configuration of the seat is adjusted in response to the current sitting position being in one of the clusters that is classified as nonpreferred.

Provided is a vehicle seat for use with an occupant classification system (OCS). The seat comprises: a seat base including a seat base support, and a cushion pan mounted on the seat base support and forwardly moveable on the support to extend the seat base. The seat further comprises an intermediate layer fixed with respect to the seat base support and adapted for fastening to a component of the OCS so that when the seat base is extended by the cushion pan moving forward with respect to the seat base support, the intermediate layer does not move forward with the cushion pan but remains substantially stationary. The relationship between the various OCS components can therefore be maintained irrespective of the extension of the seat base.

Example implementations relate to vehicle occupancy confirmation. An example implementation involves receiving, at a computing system from a camera positioned inside a vehicle, an image representing an occupancy within the vehicle. The implementation further involves, responsive to receiving the image, displaying the image on a display interface, and receiving an operator input confirming the occupancy meets a desired occupancy. The implementation additionally includes transmitting an occupancy confirmation from the computing system to the vehicle. In some instances, in response to receiving the occupancy confirmation, the vehicle executes an autonomous driving operation.

The present application provides a vehicle-carried system and a control method for vehicle facilities. The vehicle-carried system includes a characteristic information acquisition unit configured to acquire human body characteristic information; a storage unit configured to store pieces of human body characteristic information and pieces of identity information corresponding to the pieces of human body characteristic information; a matching unit configured to match the human body characteristic information acquired by the characteristic information acquisition unit with the pieces of human body characteristic information stored in the storage unit, and determine identity information corresponding to the human body characteristic information acquired by the characteristic information acquisition unit according to a result of the matching; and a control unit configured to control facilities in a vehicle according to the determined identity information.

A capacitive detection system for detecting occupancy of a vehicle seat includes a signal generating unit and a signal evaluation unit. The vehicle seat has a seat heater member configured for receiving time-varying output signals of the signal generating unit. The signal evaluation unit is configured to generate an output signal that is indicative of the seat heater member to be defective, if the sensed capacitance of the seat heater member is less than a second predetermined threshold value for the sensed capacitance.

A capacitive sensor member (130) of a vehicle seat occupant detection and classification device (18) comprises a first electrically conductive antenna member (132) and at least a second electrically conductive antenna member (134) that is adjacently arranged to the first electrically conductive antenna member (132) without any mutual galvanic connection. At least one electrically conductive bridging member (146) is fixedly attached to at least one elastic spacer member (148) that has elastic mechanical properties in a specified direction (54). If a mechanical load (F) is applied to the capacitive sensor member (130) in the specified direction (54) that is equal to or larger than a predetermined value for the mechanical load (F), the at least one electrically conductive bridging member (146) provides at least one galvanic contact between the first electrically conductive antenna member (132) and the second electrically conductive antenna member (134).

Apparatus, device, methods and system relating to a vehicular telemetry environment for monitoring vehicle components and providing indications towards the condition of the vehicle components and providing optimal indications towards replacement or maintenance of vehicle components before vehicle component failure.

Systems and methods for adapting various autonomous vehicle settings to protect personal information based on the composition of passengers in a vehicle. In particular, sensitive user information is intelligently parsed out or generalized based on user preference and the presence of unknown passengers. In some examples, sensitive user information is routed to more secure channels such as a mobile device application or a personalized display. In some implementations, the position of passengers within a vehicle is determined to identify which displays are in each passenger's field of view. Additionally, pick-up and drop-off locations can be scrambled to nearby destinations to obscure a home address, work address, or other identifiable address information.

A method of controlling a seat system. A physiological condition of the seat occupant may be assessed based on at least two of the heart rate, breathing rate, and heart rate variability. A countermeasure may be executed to alter the physiological condition of the seat occupant and/or data associated with the heart rate, breathing rate, and/or heart rate variability may be communicated.