A vehicle includes a rail-mounted component. The rail-mounted component can be equipped with one or more restraints. A restraint monitoring system monitors the one or more restraints. The restraint monitoring system includes a restraint control module and a rail-mounted component control module. The rail-mounted component control module can include a restraint deployment loop and a restraint diagnostic loop for relaying restraint deployment signals and restraint diagnostic signals, respectively, between the restraint control module and the rail-mounted component control module.

A physique estimation device determines a seat on which an occupant is seated on the basis of face information of the occupant detected from an image capturing a vehicle compartment, calculates the occupant's sitting height using a difference between a reference position and a face position for the determined seat, and estimates the occupant's physique on the basis of the occupant's sitting height.

A vehicle includes a rail-mounted component and a restraint monitoring system. The rail-mounted component can include one or more restraints. The restraint monitoring system includes a restraint control module, an encoder-decoder module, and a rail-mounted component control module. The rail-mounted component control module can include a restraint deployment loop and a restraint diagnostic loop. The restraint deployment loop can include a deployment signal amplifier. The restraint diagnostic loop can include a diagnostic signal amplifier. In examples that include both the deployment signal amplifier and the diagnostic signal amplifier, the deployment signal amplifier and the diagnostic signal amplifier may be wired in parallel.

An occupant airbag system for use in a vehicle with a retractable steering wheel includes a first airbag assembly located in the retractable steering wheel. The first airbag assembly is configured to deploy a first airbag cushion between an occupant and a rigid structure of the vehicle. The occupant airbag system also includes a second airbag assembly configured to deploy a second airbag cushion between the occupant and the rigid structure of the vehicle. The occupant airbag system also includes an airbag control module configured to suppress deployment of the first airbag cushion and to enable deployment of the second airbag cushion when the retractable steering wheel is in a retracted position.

A passenger protection apparatus includes a seat, an activation member, a first detector, a second detector, and a controller. The seat has a seat cushion on which a passenger can sit. The activation member is configured to be activated upward in the seat cushion. The first detector is configured to detect or predict a collision of a vehicle. The second detector is configured to detect a sitting state of the passenger sitting on the seat cushion. The controller is configured to control activation of the activation member. The activation member can change an activation point at which the activation member is activated upward. When the first detector detects or predicts a collision of the vehicle, the controller sets the activation point on a basis of the sitting position detected by the second detector, and activates the activation member upward in the seat cushion at the determined activation point.

In a shielding state, a partition extends from an upper portion to a lower portion of a cabin in such a manner as to partition a space between a pair of opposing vehicle seats. In the case where the partition is in the shielding state during a collision of a vehicle, the partition is inflated in a vehicle longitudinal direction by gas supplied from an inflator that is actuated when a collision detection sensor detects the collision of the vehicle. That is, since the partition is inflated in the space between the pair of the vehicle seats without interfering with the vehicle seats, the partition can reliably restrain an occupant who receives a collision load and is thereby displaced in the vehicle longitudinal direction from the vehicle seat. In this way, it is possible to easily secure a private space in the cabin and to improve occupant restraint performance.

A present implementation of an airbag system is adapted to include a curtain airbag assembly having a vertical barrier extended in a vertical direction when deployed, the vertical barrier having a first inflatable part deployed at a left side of a vehicle and a second inflatable deployed at a right side of the vehicle. The airbag system further includes sensors adapted to sense parameters associated with operational characteristics of a vehicle and an electronic control unit (ECU) adapted to receive the parameters from the sensors. The ECU is further adapted to monitor the plurality of parameters to determine if the vehicle is experiencing an accident. The airbag system further includes an inflation module adapted to deploy the curtain airbag assembly. If the ECU determines that an accident is occurring, the ECU provides a trigger signal to the inflation module to initiate a process to deploy the curtain airbag assembly.

The present invention is a vehicle control device including a restriction unit configured to restrict a change in an orientation of a vehicle seat, a vehicle information recognition unit configured to recognize information of a traveling environment of a vehicle, a risk evaluation unit configured to evaluate a risk of a collision which may occur in the vehicle on the basis of the traveling environment recognized by the vehicle information recognition unit, and a control unit configured to control the restriction unit and restrict the change in the orientation of the vehicle seat on the basis of a level of the risk of the collision evaluated by the risk evaluation unit.

A restraint system is provided for helping to protect first and second occupants of a vehicle having a roof and a cabin with first and second seats for receiving the first and second occupants. The restraint system includes first and second airbags mounted to the vehicle roof. Each of the first and second airbags has a stored condition and is inflatable to a deployed condition aligned with the respective first and second occupants. The deployed first and second airbags are spaced from one another in an inboard-outboard direction. A tether is connected to the first and second airbags for limiting relative inboard-outboard movement between the airbags in response to occupant penetration.

A vehicle seat control device includes a collision prediction part that predicts a collision direction of a collision occurring in a vehicle, a first driving part that rotates a vehicle seat around an axis of the vehicle in a substantially upward/downward direction, and a controller that controls the first driving part such that a direction of the vehicle seat is changed to an opposite direction with respect to the collision direction on the basis of the predicted collision direction.