Ford Global Technolgoies, LLC

James Zheng Peng

Kurt L Ewing

Pietro Buttolo

Brian Robert Spahn

Yifan Chen

Joseph Edward Abramczyk

Thiag Subbian

John Pinkerton

BeiBei Xu

The present disclosure relates to an intuitive haptic alert system that: (1) Identifies a second vehicle; projects a series of virtual waves emanating from the second vehicle at a source frequency, estimates observed frequencies of the virtual waves at the first vehicle according to the Doppler Effect, and generates a sequence of commands for a haptic motor based on the estimated observed frequencies. (2) Projects rumble zone(s) over road; identifies when the vehicle occupies the zone(s); generates a sequence of commands for a haptic motor based on: an identified occupation and received vehicle velocity.

Intuitive haptic alerts

A seating system for an automotive vehicle includes a side airbag mounted to an outboard portion of a seatback, with the side airbag having an occupant reaction surface which is combined with deployable upper and lower reaction members attached to the airbag to define an augmented occupant reaction surface available upon inflation of the airbag.

Vehicle seating system with airbag-based occupant reaction surface

An automotive overhead airbag assembly is provided including an airbag mounted on an inside surface of a vehicle roof at an airbag mount position. The airbag has an airbag stored condition and an airbag deployed position and expands downwards from said vehicle roof when in the airbag deployed position. The assembly includes at least one wing element having a first wing mounting edge mounted to the vehicle roof and a second wing mounting edge mounted to a lower deployed portion of said airbag. The first wing mounting edge extends in a transverse direction from the airbag mount position. The at least one wing element includes a wing stored condition and a wing deployed position. The at least one wing element restricts forward motion of the airbag when the airbag is in the deployed position. The assembly includes a trampoline surface formed by the at least one wing element when the at least one wing element is in said wing deployed position. The trampoline surface absorbs passenger forward momentum during vehicle impact.

Overhead automotive airbag design

An automotive vehicle having a passenger cabin includes a floorpan with seats mounted to the floorpan. Side closure structures adjoin the outboard ends of the seats. Seat displacement members located within the side closure structures load the outboard ends of the seats so as to deform the seat frames and floorpan. This moves the affected seat laterally inward with respect to a longitudinal center plane of the vehicle in the event of a laterally directed impact load against the closure structure. As a result, the pelvic region of the occupant will be the first region of the occupant to be dynamically loaded by the side closure structure.

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Ypsilanti, MI, United States of America

James Zheng Peng