An apparatus and a method for controlling an airbag are provided The apparatus includes an imaging device that includes cameras and lights and an image processor that performs an image processing for an image obtained by the imaging device. A collision sensor senses a collision of a vehicle and an airbag driver operates the airbag. A controller extracts face information of a passenger from the image of which the image processing is performed by the image processor, determines airbag control information based on the extracted face information, and then operates the airbag driver based on the determined airbag control information when the collision of the vehicle is predicted.

Vehicle cabin monitoring using a radar unit centrally positioned within the cabin to obtain image data of the vehicle cabin and a processor to generate detect occupancy of seats within the vehicle cabin, categorize occupants, detect posture, determine seatbelt status and monitor life signs of the occupants. An output unit may execute responses appropriate to the status of occupants of the vehicle cabin.

A vehicle includes a safety device, a camera sensor configured to detect an obstacle around the vehicle, a radar sensor configured to detect the obstacle around the vehicle, and a controller configured to predict a collision state and a collision position of the vehicle through the camera sensor and the radar sensor, determine whether to control the safety device based on at least one of a vehicle type, a collision speed, a seat position of an occupant, whether the occupant wears a seat belt, a gender of the occupant, whether the occupant is an infant, or a size of the occupant, in response to a prediction result, and control the safety device depending on device determination result.

System and method for obtaining and recording information about cargo includes a frame defining a cargo-receivable compartment, a position determining system at least partly on the frame and that allows for determination of position of the frame, an identification system on the frame that obtains information about cargo when present in the compartment, a memory component that receives and records information about position and movement of the frame, and the obtained information about cargo when present in the compartment in association with a unique identification of the frame, and a communications system on the frame to enable communication of information to and from the memory component.

A vehicle occupant protection device has an airbag main body that is formed as a single integrated bag body that covers a head portion of a vehicle occupant and includes a forward-inflating portion housed in a headrest or in a seat back of a vehicle seat, and which inflates and deploys when supplied with gas, and which inflates on a seat front side of the head portion, and a pair of left and right side-inflating portions which inflate on seat side portions of the head portion. This vehicle occupant protection device also has a sub-bag portion that is provided in at least one of the forward-inflating portion and the side-inflating portions, and that, when an internal pressure inside the airbag main body reaches a predetermined value or greater, inflates after receiving an inflow of gas from at least one of the forward-inflating portion and the side-inflating portions.

A vehicle seating assembly comprises a seat including a back having an array of at least two electrodes arranged in the back such that a master electrode has an electric field being greater than an electric field of each of the other electrodes within the array to detect a total change in capacitance from the array. A controller is responsive to a change in capacitance calculated from the master electrode being greater than a first threshold and each of the other electrodes in the array being greater than a second threshold and outputs occupant movement data indicative of a first status of the seat to a vehicle control sub-system.

A method for presenting information upon starting an automotive vehicle includes at least one step in which various parameters associated with the vehicle are verified. Also included is a step in which a particular light beam is projected onto a specific area of the passenger compartment of the vehicle when the state of a plurality of verified parameters allows the vehicle to be started.

An airbag system includes an airbag having a main portion having a first periphery. The main portion is inflatable in an inflation direction to a first thickness. An extension extends from the main portion and has a second periphery spaced from the first periphery. The extension is inflatable in the inflation direction to a second thickness. The first periphery and the second periphery define a gap therebetween. A depression is disposed between the main portion and the extension at the gap and the depression has a third thickness in the inflation direction less than the first thickness and the second thickness. The extension and the depression may receive a head of an occupant during an oblique impact, in which the head of the occupant may avoid the main portion of the airbag.

An air-bag apparatus includes: a frame member that is tiltable along a seat back of a vehicle seat; and a bag body that is embedded in the frame member, that is inflated and expanded to a front of an occupant seated on the vehicle seat at a time of an impact input, and that prevents a body of the occupant from being separated from the seat back.

Disclosed herein is a system for recognizing a tilt angle through detection of torque variation in a vehicle. The system includes a steering unit including a steering wheel steered by a driver and a steering shaft connected to the steering wheel, a torque detection unit configured to detect a torque variation according to a change in tilt angle of the steering shaft, and a control unit configured to calculate a torque variation using pre-stored data for a joint angle of the steering shaft and a plane angle of the steering shaft according to the change in tilt angle of the steering shaft, and to derive data for a tilt angle of the steering shaft by matching the calculated torque variation with the torque variation detected by the torque detection unit.