A restraint system for a vehicle is disclosed. The restraint system includes a seat shaped to accommodate an occupant, wherein the seat includes a seat back and an energy absorption member that expands from a stowed position and into a deployed position. The energy absorption member fills a volume of space behind the seat back when in the deployed position to absorb energy that would otherwise be imparted towards an occupant of the seat during an impact involving the vehicle. The restraint system also includes an impact sensing device generating an impact signal in response to detecting the impact involving the vehicle is imminent. The impact signal indicates an orientation and magnitude of the impact involving the vehicle. The restraint system includes a control module in electronic communication with the energy absorption member and the impact sensing device.

A seating assembly for a vehicle comprises: a seatback; an airbag having a stowed position and an inflated position, the airbag being configured to inflate from the stowed position to the inflated position in response to the vehicle impacting an object; a head restraint coupled to the seatback, the head restraint including a forward position, a rearward position, and a locking mechanism preventing the head restraint from moving from the forward position to the rearward position after taking the forward position; and as the airbag inflates from the stowed position to the inflated position, the airbag forces the head restraint from the rearward position to the forward position. As the airbag inflates from the stowed position to the inflated position and forces the head restraint to the forward position, the airbag does not contact the one or more support bars and does not force the seatback to change position

Actuators can be used in controlling a seat surface of a vehicle seat. The actuators can have an outer skin in connection with a hinge assemblies. The actuators can include a shape-memory material (SMM) member operatively connected to the hinge assemblies. The SMM member can be a shape-memory alloy (SMA) wire. The SMM member can change from a first configuration to the second configuration in response to an activation input, such as heat. The input can be delivered to the SMM member upon detecting an activation condition, such as detection of lateral acceleration. The actuators are operatively positioned relative to a seat surface such that, when the SMM member changes configuration, actuator causes the seat surface to morph.

An assembly includes a seat and an armrest moveable relative to the seat. A first arm and a second arm each include a first hinge and a second hinge. The first hinges are spaced from each other and fixed relative to the seat. The second hinges are spaced from each other and fixed relative to the armrest.

A vehicle seat, which is provided with a collision prediction sensor and with a seat cushion having a seat cushion top face and a seat cushion frame, includes: a pelvis movement suppression member disposed along a seat width direction inside a front portion of the seat cushion; a vertical movement-enabling unit supporting the pelvis movement suppression member at the seat cushion frame and allowing vertical movement of the pelvis movement suppression member to follow vertical movement of the seat cushion top face; and a stopper unit attached to the seat cushion frame and, in a case in which a rapid deceleration of a vehicle is detected or a collision of the vehicle is predicted by the collision prediction sensor, restricting downward movement of the pelvis movement suppression member.

A vehicle seat includes a seatback, a headrest and an airbag unit. The seatback has a front side and a rear side. The headrest is connected to the seatback by at least one post and is adjustable relative to the seatback in a vertical direction. The airbag unit is carried by the seatback and includes an airbag and an inflator. The airbag is rearwardly deployable from the rear side of the seatback from a stored position proximate an upper end of the seatback. The at least one post is oriented relative to the airbag unit in a position selected from a group consisting of a first position in which the at least one post includes a lower end vertically above the airbag unit with a line along an elongated axis of the at least one post intersecting the airbag unit and a second position on which the at least one post is laterally spaced from the airbag unit.

A vehicle includes a floor and a center console supported by the floor. The center console includes a bottom adjacent to the floor and openings. At least some of the openings have an enlarged portion spaced from the bottom and a slot portion extending from the enlarged portion to the bottom. Fasteners are disposed in the enlarged portion and fixed relative to the floor.

An occupant restraining device for a vehicle has: a time to collision estimating section that estimates a time to collision, the time to collision being a time until a front collision with a vehicle ahead; a force imparting portion that imparts force toward a vehicle rear side to a vehicle occupant of an own vehicle; a gap enlarging portion that enlarges a gap between the vehicle occupant and a seatback of a vehicle seat; a gap estimating section that estimates a size of the gap between the vehicle occupant and the seatback; and a control section that, in a case in which the gap enlarging portion operates, controls a timing of a start of operation of the force imparting portion on the basis of the time to collision estimated by the time to collision estimating section and the size of the gap estimated by the gap estimating section.

A vehicle safety system is mounted on a far-side vehicle seat for protecting a far-side occupant in a near-side impact crash event. The vehicle safety system includes an occupant restraint mounted on an inboard side of a seat back of the far-side vehicle seat. The restraint includes a support frame rotatable from a stowed condition where the support frame is aligned with the seat back and a deployed condition where the support frame is forward of the seat back. The support frame includes a rear arm and a forward arm each rotatably connected to the seat back at separate mounting points with the mounting point of the rear arm located above the mounting point of the forward arm. In a near-side impact crash event the restraint is rotated into the deployed condition inboard of the far-side vehicle seat to restrain the far-side occupant against lateral movement within the vehicle.

An energy absorber having a bar movable along a longitudinal axis by a tensile force. First and second energy absorbers extend along the longitudinal axis. A coupling mechanism couples the second energy absorber to the bar. The first energy absorber activates upon movement of the bar along the longitudinal axis. The coupling mechanism has a force transferring element to transfer force from the bar to the second energy absorber upon activation by a trigger. The trigger is subjected to a trigger load that is proportional to the bar's velocity along the longitudinal axis. The trigger is displaceable from its unloaded position upon loading and, simultaneously, constrained from displacing by a constraining force acting in opposite direction of the trigger load. The trigger displaces to activate the force transferring element to activate the second energy absorber when the velocity of the bar is above first pre-determined non-zero amount.