A CPU of an ECU is configured to compute an estimated acceleration that is estimated to be applied to a vehicle and a remaining time that is taken from present time to acceleration occurrence time at which the estimated acceleration occurs from a road surface condition detected by a road surface condition detection unit and a vehicle status detected by a vehicle speed determination unit and a steering angle velocity determination unit. The CPU is configured to, when the remaining time becomes shorter than or equal to a predetermined value, drive a retractor motor. The webbing is retracted before an occupant moves with an acceleration that is applied to the vehicle, so the occupant is held in a normal seated position. The retractor motor is driven when the time that is taken from present time to acceleration occurrence time becomes shorter than or equal to the predetermined value.

A method for operating an occupant protection device of a vehicle involves triggering an occupant protection mechanism, in the event of an imminent detected collision for the vehicle or of a detected collision of the vehicle. The triggering also depends upon detected image data of at least one interior camera of the vehicle and the triggering can be suppressed based on the detected image data of the interior camera.

A control device for a seat belt of a vehicle includes a retracting unit configured to retract the seat belt, a departure detection unit configured to detect a departure of the vehicle from a lane; a vehicle speed sensor configured to measure a vehicle speed; and an electronic control unit configured to operate the retracting unit when both a first condition and a second condition are satisfied. The first condition is a condition that the departure detection unit detects the departure of the vehicle from the lane, and the second condition is a condition that the vehicle speed is equal to or higher than a prescribed speed, and the electronic control unit is configured not to operate the retracting unit when the first condition is satisfied and the second condition is not satisfied.

Systems, apparatus and methods may be configured to implement actively-controlled light emission from a robotic vehicle. A light emitter(s) of the robotic vehicle may be configurable to indicate a direction of travel of the robotic vehicle and/or display information (e.g., a greeting, a notice, a message, a graphic, passenger/customer/client content, vehicle livery, customized livery) using one or more colors of emitted light (e.g., orange for a first direction and purple for a second direction), one or more sequences of emitted light (e.g., a moving image/graphic), or positions of light emitter(s) on the robotic vehicle (e.g., symmetrically positioned light emitters). The robotic vehicle may not have a front or a back (e.g., a trunk/a hood) and may be configured to travel bi-directionally, in a first direction or a second direction (e.g., opposite the first direction), with the direction of travel being indicated by one or more of the light emitters.

An occupant protection device including a seat belt including a shoulder belt and a lap belt, a locking tongue that is detachably joined to a buckle, that allows the seat belt to pass therethrough, and that is capable of switching between an unlock state in which the seat belt is allowed to move with the locking tongue being between the shoulder belt and the lap belt and a lock state in which movement thereof is restricted, a shoulder-belt puller that is capable of pulling the shoulder belt to apply a tensile force thereto, a side-collision detector that detects a side collision or a precursor thereof, and a control unit that changes a state of the locking tongue into the lock state and causes the shoulder-belt puller to pull the shoulder belt when the side-collision detector detects the side collision that occurs opposite an occupant or the precursor thereof.

A vehicle comprises a motor configured to wind a seat belt provided in the vehicle; a first detection unit configured to detect a following vehicle while the vehicle is traveling; a second detection unit configured to detect a preceding vehicle while the vehicle is traveling; a determination unit configured to determine a risk that the following vehicle that is detected by the first detection unit will collide with the vehicle; and a control unit configured to control winding of the seat belt by changing a winding speed of the seat belt by the motor in a case when the determination unit determines that there is the risk.

Devices and methods prevent injection of a substrate current into the substrate Sub of a CMOS circuit. The devices detect the potential of a contact of the integrated CMOS circuit, compare the value of the potential detected with a reference value and connect the contact to a leakage circuit node for discharging the current such that same does not flow to ground via the parasitic bipolar lateral structure. The leakage circuit node can be connected to the reference potential line or to another line that has a higher potential than the reference potential line. This electrical connection is activated when the value of the potential of the contact is lower than or equal to a reference value.

A method for controlling actuation of an actuatable restraint in response to a vehicle rollover event includes detecting whether the vehicle (12) is being driven off-road. The method also includes determining whether the vehicle (12) is undergoing a roll event (99) that would warrant actuation of the actuatable restraint (20) if the vehicle was being driven on-road. The method further includes actuating the actuatable restraint (20) in response to determining that a roll acceleration (D RATE) of the vehicle (20) indicates that the roll event is continuing. A vehicle safety system (10) includes an actuatable restraint and a controller (50) configured to control actuation of the actuatable restraint according to this method.

A vehicle control device that controls a vehicle, the vehicle control device comprising: an acquisition unit configured to acquire surrounding information of the vehicle; a recognition unit configured to recognize another vehicle traveling in surroundings of the vehicle, based on the surrounding information; a calculation unit configured to calculate a visual recognition ratio of a steering wheel of the other vehicle to a perfect circle; and a control unit configured to control the vehicle, based on the visual recognition ratio.

A motor vehicle has a passenger compartment for at least one vehicle user and has at least one sensor device for detecting a location of the vehicle user in the passenger compartment. At least one retaining device is used to fix the vehicle user in his/her location. A control device is provided to activate the at least one retaining device according to a signal of at least one impact sensor of the motor vehicle. The at least one retaining device is designed to fix the vehicle user in a location in the passenger compartment different from a vehicle seat of the motor vehicle. A method operates such a motor vehicle.