Techniques are disclosed for systems and methods to detect and/or classify a vehicle occupant, such as a passenger seated within the cockpit of a vehicle. An occupant classification system includes an occupant weight sensor, an occupant presence sensor, and a logic device configured to communicate with the occupant weight sensor and the occupant presence sensor. The logic device is configured to receive occupant weight sensor signals from the occupant weight sensor and occupant presence sensor signals from the occupant presence sensor, determine an estimated occupant weight and an occupant presence response based, at least in part, on the occupant weight sensor signals and the occupant presence sensor signals, and determine an occupant classification status corresponding to the passenger seat based, at least in part, on the estimated occupant weight and/or the occupant presence response.

Techniques are disclosed for systems and methods to detect and/or classify a vehicle occupant, such as a passenger seated within the cockpit of a vehicle. An occupant classification system includes an occupant weight sensor, an occupant presence sensor, and a logic device configured to communicate with the occupant sensors. The occupant weight sensor includes at least first and second conductive electrodes separated by a dielectric layer, top and bottom protective plastic layers configured to support the respective first and second conductive electrodes, and adhesive layers disposed between the plastic layers and the conductive electrodes and between the conductive electrodes and the dielectric layer. The top protective plastic layer is longer and/or wider than the first conductive electrode and the bottom protective plastic layer is longer and/or wider than the second conductive electrode to provide edge protection against electrical shorts for the first and second conductive electrodes.

An occupant detection method includes detecting a load applied to a seat for a vehicle, detecting that an occupant is seated at the seat, holding a local maximum of the load which is detected when the occupant becomes seated, setting a standard value of the load in a state in which the occupant is seated at the seat, and estimating a body height of the occupant on the basis of a comparison between the local maximum of the load and the standard value of the load, wherein when the body height of the occupant is estimated, the larger a difference between the local maximum of the load and the standard value of the load is, the higher body height of the occupant is estimated.

The present invention relates to a measurement arrangement for detecting an occupancy of a motor vehicle seat arrangement with at least one seat, which comprises a sensor arrangement with at least one sensor (10) for detecting a deformation of a lower side (21) facing away from the seating surface or of a force loading by a lower side (21) facing away from the seating surface of a seat cushion (20) of at least one seat of the motor vehicle seat arrangement, which is fastened on a structural element (40) of the motor vehicle.

The systems and methods described herein can be applied to a vehicle equipped with a sensor suite that can observe information about a location, for example, a traffic light duration. The system can record information, e.g., the traffic light colors, duration of color changes, and location of the traffic lights and can upload this information to the cloud. Then, the system can augment or learn about the location, e.g., learning of traffic patterns, and store the augmented data as database-based information, where available. The learned information can help a requesting vehicle to better estimate an estimated time of arrival (ETA) for common routes taken, provide more accurate ETAs based on historical knowledge, and/or calculate or provide alternative route information.

A computing device in a vehicle can be programmed to receive an occupant position measurement from at least one of an acoustic and a light sensor, determine an estimated occupant size based on occupant weight, estimate a vehicle seat position based on the occupant position measurement, and, control a vehicle occupant safety device based on the estimated occupant size and estimated vehicle seat position.

A method for activating a lock in a vehicle includes capturing an image of an interior of a vehicle, the image comprising an occupant on a seat of the vehicle, detecting a weight value of the occupant on a respective seat of the vehicle, processing the image for determining whether the occupant is a human or an object or an animal, processing, in response to the determination that the occupant is the human, the image for determining a parameter of the human, and activating a lock based on the parameter, or the weight value and the parameter.

An occupant or object sensing system in a vehicle includes electrical circuits for resistive and/or capacitive sensing and corresponding circuits shielding the sensing system from interference. A sensing circuit and a shielding circuit may be printed by screen printing with conductive ink on opposite sides of a non-conductive substrate. The substrate is a plastic film or other fabric that has an elastic memory structure that is resilient to stretching. The conductive inks used to print circuits onto the substrate have a similar resilience to stretching such that the substrate and the circuits thereon can be subject to deforming forces without breaking the printed circuits. The substrate may be covered with a carbon polymer layer to provide alternative conductive paths that enable fast recovery for conduction in the presence of any break in the printed conductive traces on the substrate.

An automatic driving vehicle has an automatic driving mode in which autonomous traveling is carried out, the automatic driving vehicle including: behavior setup receiving means configured to receive a setup for a behavior after getting out from the automatic driving vehicle, the setup being to be inputted when a driver or passenger gets out from the automatic driving vehicle; and control means configured to control conduct of the behavior on the basis of the setup. A program is provided for the automatic driving vehicle which includes a computer, the program causing the computer to function as: behavior setup receiving means configured to receive a setup for a behavior after getting out from the automatic driving vehicle, the setup being inputted by a driver or passenger who gets out from the automatic driving vehicle; and control means configured to control conduct of the behavior on the basis of the setup.

Provided is a vehicle seat fastening structure that enables a reduced length of a bolt for fastening a movable rail and a cushion frame in a spaced-apart manner. The cushion frame includes a bottom wall extending in a seat-width direction and a seat front-rear direction. The nut includes a body having a cylindrical shape and configured to penetrate the bottom wall, a thread groove, and a flange portion projecting radially from the body. A length of the nut along a central axis thereof is greater than a separation distance between an upper surface of the movable rail and an upper surface of the bottom wall of the cushion frame in a state in which no impact is applied to the cushion frame. The flange portion is provided in an area of the nut at a distance from an insertion opening for the bolt greater than the separation distance.