An impact detection system for a vehicle and an impact detection method therefore are provided. The impact detection system includes an impact value calculator that determines an impact value corresponding to a magnitude of an impact applied to a vehicle, an impact location estimator that estimates a location to which the impact is applied in the vehicle and generates an impact location signal including a parameter value corresponding to the estimated location, and an effective impact determining device that compares the impact value with an impact detection reference value for each location of the vehicle, corresponding to the parameter value.

A system for controlling operation of a vehicle includes a millimeter-wave radar sensor, a processor, and a memory communicably coupled to the processor. The memory stores a sensor control module configured to automatically control operation of the radar sensor to perform at least one radar scan of at least a portion of an interior of the vehicle. The sensor control module is also configured to determine, using information acquired by the at least one radar scan of the vehicle interior, at least one characteristic of a child car seat positioned in the interior. The sensor control module is also configured to compare the at least one determined characteristic of the child car seat with child car seat comparison information and, responsive to the comparison of the at least one determined characteristic with the child car seat comparison information, control an operation of the vehicle.

A method for a seat belt system (10) in a vehicle (14), the seat belt system (10) comprising a control unit (36) and at least one seat belt (18) with an extendable webbing (20) and a webbing extension measuring device (30), includes the steps of: a) determining whether a vehicle seat (16) is occupied, b) determining whether the webbing (20) is in a storage position, if the vehicle seat (16) is not occupied, and c) outputting a warning signal, in particular via an output device (34), if the webbing (20) is not in the storage position.

Moreover, the invention provides a seat belt system (10) for a vehicle (14) comprising an extendable seat belt (17, 18) as well as a vehicle (14) comprising a seat belt system (10).

A central locking device for door locks of a motor vehicle includes a control device and, connected thereto, locking couplings in the door locks. An accident detection device is provided for determining an accident situation of the motor vehicle and for transmitting an accident signal to the control device. Upon receiving the accident situation signal, the control device is set up to switch the locking couplings to the locked status for a defined period of time and then to switch them to the unlocked status. This prevents disturbances that may occur in the region of the door handle during an acute accident phase, since the door handles are not functional during the defined period of time.

Aspects of the disclosure relate to deploying safety mechanisms in an autonomous vehicle. As an example, the situational information identifying a potential impact target corresponding to an object with which the autonomous vehicle is predicted to have a collision within a predetermined period of time may be received. This situational information may also include an estimated time when the second computing device will receive an update for the potential impact target from the first computing device. The estimated time may be used to determine when to deploy a set of active safety mechanisms for the potential impact target. Each active safety mechanism may be configured to reduce a likelihood of damage to an object external to the autonomous vehicle caused by a collision. A signal is then sent to activate the set of active safety mechanisms prior to an impact with the object corresponding to the identified potential impact target.

A roof airbag for vehicles and a control method to deploy the roof airbag are proposed. The roof airbag, which protects occupants by minimizing reduction of internal pressure of the airbag in an accident event in which a vehicle rolls over several times in sequence, includes: a main inflator and sub-inflator which generate gas; and a controller configured to ignite the main inflator to deploy an airbag cushion when a rollover accident of a vehicle occurs, and configured to ignite the sub-inflator to increase internal pressure of the airbag cushion when a secondary accident occurs following the primary rollover accident of the vehicle.

A method for operating a safety component in a motor vehicle. The method includes: determining a stored threshold value, which is provided for a comparison with an operating parameter of the safety component to set an error value when the operating parameter reaches the threshold value; ascertaining an error value when the threshold value is reached; collecting threshold-value correction data when the threshold value is reached or when a situation occurs in which it is expected that the threshold value will be reached, and transmitting threshold-value correction data to a central data processor; receiving from a central data processor at least one corrected threshold value for correcting the threshold value during the operation of the safety component, the correction data having been ascertained from error data that were ascertained in identically designed safety components of other motor vehicles; and adopting the corrected threshold as the stored threshold value.

According to one aspect, an overall airbag system of an autonomous vehicle uses a combination of sensors to deploy one or more external airbags in advance of a collision or as a collision occurs, for the purpose of protecting vulnerable persons. By using sensor data, combined with perception and prediction algorithms, an autonomous driving system may deploy a substantially optimal combination of external airbags for a given the size of a vulnerable person, vehicle speed, and/or collision timing. In addition to cushioning impact during a collision, the deployment of multiple external airbags may also control kinematics of vulnerable persons, as for example by addressing brain injuries in pedestrians due to rotational kinematics.

A vehicle diagnostic and communication system includes a controller with computer executable instructions configured to diagnose operational capability of vehicle operating systems in response to a recognized collision event. The controller is further configured to determine a severity of damage to the vehicle operating systems based on the diagnoses and generate a communication signal based on the determined severity of damage to the vehicle for transmission. The system determines which of a plurality of service providers to send the communication signal based on the severity of damage to the vehicle.

A method for adapting a triggering algorithm of a personal restraint device of a vehicle on the basis of a detected vehicle interior state of the vehicle. The method comprises detecting of key points of a vehicle occupant by an optical sensor device, ascertaining a vehicle occupant posture of the vehicle occupant based on the connection of the detected key points to a skeleton-like representation of body parts of the vehicle occupant, wherein the skeleton-like representation reflects the relative position and orientation of individual body parts of the vehicle occupant, predicting a future vehicle occupant posture of the vehicle occupant based on a predicted future position of at least one of the key points, and modifying the triggering algorithm of the personal restraint device based on the predicted future posture of the vehicle occupant. A control device for adapting a triggering algorithm of a personal restraint device is also disclosed.