A method for a seat belt system (10) in a vehicle (14), wherein the seat belt system (10) comprises an extendable seat belt (18), a webbing extension measuring device (30) and a control unit (36), includes the steps of: a) determining the webbing extension by means of the webbing extension measuring device (30), b) determining whether a locking tongue (22) is connected to a belt buckle (24), c) determining whether the webbing extension is above a threshold.

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

Disclosed are a seat belt wireless communication system and method. The seat belt wireless communication system includes sensing units provided in respective seats and configured to sense whether or not to fasten seat belts, sub-ECUs provided in the respective seats and configured to transmit signals indicating whether or not to fasten the seat belts, sensed by the sensing units, through wireless communication, and a main ECU provided in a vehicle and configured to perform wireless communication with the respective sub-ECUs, to wake up the sub-ECUs through wireless communication, to determine whether or not to fasten the seat belts of the respective seats by receiving the signals from the sub-ECUs after wake-up of the sub-ECUs, and to determine, when the main ECU does not receive a corresponding one of the signals from at least one of the sub-ECUs B, that the corresponding sub-ECU has failed.

The present invention relates to an anti-abandonment system comprising: a first sensor (2) associable with a restraining device (R) placed in the vehicle, a second sensor (3) associable with a fastening tab or with a fastening buckle of a safety belt of the vehicle. The anti-abandonment system comprises a control unit connected to the first and second sensors and configured to perform a control procedure comprising the steps of: determining, as a function of the signal emitted by the first sensor, the presence of a child and/or an infant on the restraining device; determining, as a function of the signal emitted by the second sensor, a fastened or unfastened condition of the safety belt, defining an alarm condition in the event that the control unit determines the presence of a child and/or an infant on the restraining device and at the same time the unfastened condition of the safety belt. The present invention also regards a process for warning of a potentially hazardous situation relative to the presence of an infant/child inside a vehicle.

The techniques of this disclosure relate to a vehicle occupancy-monitoring system. The system includes a controller circuit that receives occupant data from an occupancy-monitoring sensor of a vehicle. The controller circuit determines an occupancy status of respective seats in a cabin of the vehicle based on the occupancy-monitoring sensor. The controller circuit indicates the occupancy status of the respective seats on a display located in a field of view of occupants of the vehicle. The display is integral to one of a roof light module, a door panel, or a headliner of the cabin. The system can improve passenger safety by alerting the operator and other occupants about the occupancy status of the passengers.

Locating systems and methods for wireless seat belt monitoring in vehicles with removable or reconfigurable seats are provided herein. An example remote transceiver can be centrally located on a seat that is configured to be rearranged within a vehicle. The remote transceiver can include a processor and memory for storing instructions that include a unique code identifying the remote transceiver. The processor executes the instructions to receive low power signals from transmitters within an interior of the vehicle, determine received signal strength values of the low power signals. The received signal strength values are used by the vehicle receiver to determine a location of the remote transceiver within the vehicle.

The invention is related to a buckle housing (1; 1′) for a safety belt in a child safety seat. The buckle housing (1; 1′) comprises a recess (2; 2′) adapted to receive a tongue (3; 3′) of the safety belt, a magnet (4; 4′) 5 arranged within the housing (1; 1′) to be movable between a first position (P1) and a second position (P2) thereof, and a magnet sensor (5; 5′) arranged in the housing (1, 1′) and adapted to detect when the magnet (4, 4′) is in the second position (P2). The invention also relates to a method for indicating the presence of a tongue (3; 3′) in a belt buckle housing (1; 1′).

An assembly for a vehicle includes a seatbelt buckle, a seatbelt retractor, and webbing retractably extendable from the seatbelt retractor and releasably engageable with the seatbelt buckle. The webbing is extendable from the seatbelt retractor from a fully retracted position toward an extended position. The assembly includes a vibration motor on the seatbelt buckle. The assembly includes a computer having a processor and memory including instructions executable by the processor to activate the vibration motor in response to movement of the webbing from the fully retracted position toward an extended position. The vibration motor provides haptic guidance to an occupant to engage the clip with the seatbelt buckle.

A system for managing a seat occupancy status by a passenger and a control method of the system includes a seat belt sensor provided for each seat to detect a fastening or unfastening of the seat belt, a pressure detection unit provided for each seat to detect occupancy or non-occupancy of a seat by a passenger and pressure of the seated passenger, a secondary control unit provided for each seat and woken up by radio communication with a vehicle to alert to an unfastened state of the seat belt when the seat belt is unfastened upon determining, by a seat belt sensor, whether the seat belt is fastened, and a primary control unit provided in the vehicle to perform radio communications with each secondary control unit and check an abnormality based on reception or non-reception of the system data transmitted from the secondary control unit.

A vehicle interlock system includes a wheelchair fixing device configured to fix a wheelchair to a vehicle, a seatbelt device having a seatbelt configured such that, an occupant seated in the wheelchair wears the seatbelt, and a control unit. The control unit is configured to limit at least one of an upper limit traveling speed and an upper limit acceleration of the vehicle or output a warning signal, or to output a warning signal while limiting at least one of the upper limit traveling speed and the upper limit acceleration of the vehicle depending on at least one of the following conditions: whether the wheelchair is fixed to the vehicle with the wheelchair fixing device; whether the occupant is wearing the seatbelt; and so forth.

The present disclosure relates to methods and systems for determining a state indicating whether a seat belt of a vehicle is used. A computer implemented method for determining a state indicating whether a seat belt of a vehicle is used comprises: acquiring at least one image of a portion of an interior of the vehicle; determining whether the at least one image comprises a buckle receiver; if it is determined that the at least one image comprises the buckle receiver, determining the state based on the image, and otherwise performing: extracting, from the acquired image, information related to a user of the seat belt and/or information related to a buckle of the seat belt; determining a probability of a change of the state based on the extracted information, and updating the state based on the determined probability.