A lateral protecting mechanism adapted for a child carrier is provided and includes a protecting block, a locking component, a driving component and an operating component. The protecting block is pivotally disposed a lateral portion of the child carrier. The locking component is slidably disposed on the lateral portion of the child carrier and configured to slide to abut against the protecting block for restraining a pivoting movement of the protecting block. The driving component is located at a position corresponding to the locking component for driving the locking component to slide to abut against the protecting block for restraining the pivoting movement of the protecting block. The operating component is coupled to the driving component for driving the driving component to pivot to drive the locking component to abut against the protecting block when the operating component is operated. Besides, a related child restraint system is provided.

Proposed are a vehicle occupant protection apparatus and method. A vehicle sensor detects a target present around a vehicle. A drive unit is configured to increase a space between a side structure of the vehicle and an occupant in the event of a side collision between the vehicle and the target collide. A space control unit controls the drive unit in response to detection information detected by the vehicle sensor to protect the occupant from the side structure.

A lateral shock absorber includes a protective fender pivoted to a base of a child car safety seat and a locking mechanism disposed on the base. The protective fender is pivotally switchable between a folded state or an unfolded state. The locking mechanism is for selectively engaging with the protective fender to restrain the protective fender from switching to the unfolded state or disengaging from the protective fender to allow the protective fender to switch to the unfolded state when the protective fender is located in the folded state. The locking mechanism includes a locking assembly, an abutting component and an abutting block connected to the abutting component. The locking assembly engages with the protective fender to restrain the protective fender from moving, and the abutting component is driven by the abutting block to disengage the locking assembly from the protective fender when the abutting block is pressed downwardly.

Provided is a vehicle seat that is rotatable relative to a vehicle body and can prevent a collision between an object located around a seat body and an occupant by airbags. A vehicle seat includes: a seat body (6) supported by a vehicle body (2b) so as to be rotatable around a substantially vertical axis; a pair of airbags (17) provided on either lateral side edge of the seat body and configured to deploy to respective lateral sides of an occupant seated on the seat body; a rotation angle detecting device (15) provided on the seat body and configured to detect a rotation angle of the seat body relative to the vehicle body; and a control device (22) configured to control deploying operation of the respective airbags independently of each other. The deploying operation includes a deploying amount and/or a deploying timing. The control device is configured to individually control the deploying operation of the pair of airbags according to the rotation angle detected by the rotation angle detecting device.

A system and method are provided for controlling an interior configuration of a vehicle. The system may include an interior vehicle component, an actuator component configured to adjust a physical configuration of the interior vehicle component, an external communication component configured to collect driving environment data representing an external environment of the vehicle, and one or more processors configured to receive driving environment data and detect, by processing the driving environment data, an external driving condition. When the one or more processors detect the external driving condition, the one or more processors may cause the actuator component to adjust the interior vehicle component from a first physical configuration to a second physical configuration, or may cause the actuator component to restrict movement of the interior vehicle component to a predetermined range of physical configurations.

An airbag support device for a vehicle swivel seat includes: a support frame disposed on a lateral side of a seat back frame; a side airbag disposed on a rear plate of the support frame; a plurality of support bars disposed in an extendable manner on a lateral plate of the support frame; an extension drive bar configured to extend such that the extension drive bar connects the plurality of support bars to each other while extending; and a support bar extension drive assembly, connected to the rear plate of the support frame and the extension drive bar, wherein the support bar extension drive assembly is configured to push the extension drive bar inward and outward and at the same time to extend the support bar when the side airbag is inflated.

An occupant protection apparatus includes an airbag, an upper holder, and a tension member. The airbag is disposed along side surfaces of a seat from an upper part of the seat into space under a seat surface. The upper holder is configured to hold an upper part of the airbag and disposed between and above shoulders of an occupant to sit on the seat in a right-to-left direction. The tension member is configured to, upon deployment of the airbag, apply a tensional force to a lower part of the deploying airbag to pull the lower part in a direction opposite to a side surface on which the airbag is deployed.

A system and method are provided for controlling an interior configuration of a vehicle. The system may include an interior vehicle component, an actuator component configured to adjust a physical configuration of the interior vehicle component, an external communication component configured to collect driving environment data representing an external environment of the vehicle, and one or more processors configured to receive driving environment data and detect, by processing the driving environment data, an external driving condition. When the one or more processors detect the external driving condition, the one or more processors may cause the actuator component to adjust the interior vehicle component from a first physical configuration to a second physical configuration, or may cause the actuator component to restrict movement of the interior vehicle component to a predetermined range of physical configurations.

A side airbag apparatus may include: a seat on which a passenger is seated; an inflator mounted on the seat, and configured to jet gas; a cushion inflated by the gas jetted from the inflator, and deployed toward the passenger so as to move the passenger to an inboard side of the vehicle; and a controller configured to operate the inflator to deploy the cushion before the collision of the vehicle, according to driving information of the vehicle, based on a signal of a sensor mounted on the vehicle.

An assembly includes a seat bottom having a rear and a pair of sides extending in a seat-forward direction from the rear. The assembly includes a seatback rotatably supported by the seat bottom. The assembly includes an active actuator operatively connected to the seatback to rotate the seatback about a vertical axis toward one of the sides of the seat bottom.