Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha

Aisin Seiki Kabushiki Kaisha

Nippondenso Co., Ltd.

Nippon Soken, Inc.

Koichi Fujita

Motomi Iyoda

Kazunori Sakamoto

Takao Akatsuka

Yuta Maniwa

Tsutomu Takeuchi

Koichi Sugiyama

Toshiaki Matsuhashi

Hiromichi Fujishima

Tateki Kawamura

Daisuke Akaho

Tomokazu Sakaguchi

Jun Tohyama

Natsumi Izawa

Masahiro Taguchi

Masahiro Ueda

Makoto Sekizuka

Motonori Tominaga

Mitsuhiko Masegi

Akira Kondo

Kazuya Sasaki

Yoshikazu Ohno

Masahito Muto

Masami Aga

Shuichi Ishimoto

Satoru Taniguchi

Takuya Otsuka

Toshiaki Ota

Masahito Mutoh

Yoshiyuki Ito

Yoshihiko Teguri

Naoki Ishii

Kazuhiko Gotoh

Shuitsu Yamamoto

Yukihito Okada

Yoichi Kozuru

Takeki Kawamura

A control device includes a first processor. The first processor is configured to provide notification of a warning during autonomous driving to a first display unit of an onboard terminal installed in a vehicle; provide notification of the warning to a second display unit at a portable terminal carried by a vehicle occupant, via a second processor at the portable terminal; and in a case in which a predetermined condition has been satisfied, disable notification of the warning to the portable terminal and provide notification of the warning to the onboard terminal.

Control device, control method, and non-transitory storage medium

A vehicle information processing device, for application to a vehicle configured to perform all driving operations under a fixed condition, the device includes; a terminal identification section configured to identify a portable terminal corresponding to authentication information authenticated by an authentication device provided at the vehicle; a driver's terminal setting section configured to set a driver's terminal used by a driver, based on information received from the identified portable terminal; and a notification section configured to notify the driver's terminal in a case in which a predetermined condition is satisfied in an autonomous driving state in which all driving operations are performed by the vehicle.

Vehicle information processing device

Control systems and methods for controlling a vehicle-occupant protecting apparatus that includes two vehicle-occupant protecting devices which are disposed on respective right and left sides of an automotive vehicle, are operable to determine whether the vehicle has a rollover motion, on the basis of a physical quantity or quantities indicative of a running condition of the vehicle, and, upon determination that the vehicle has said rollover motion, to operate only the vehicle-occupant protecting device(s) located on a rolling side of the vehicle. When the detected rollover motion is expected to develop into a serious rollover motion, non-rolling-side vehicle-occupant protecting device(s) is located on a non-rolling side of the vehicle is operated. Thus, the control system and method permit adequate operations of the vehicle-occupant protecting devices depending upon the rollover state of the vehicle.

Control system and method for controlling vehicle-occupant protecting apparatus

An acceleration detector comprising a rotor rotatably supported within a housing and rotating against the urging force of a torsion spring based on acceleration, a pair of contact terminals contacting each other to be in an electrically connected state by rotation of the rotor at an inner end portion provided within the housing, and a supporting portion integrally formed with the rotor and supporting the torsion spring. The supporting portion is displaced by a predetermined amount in a predetermined direction from the rotary center of the rotor so that the spring effect center when torque is exerted on the torsion spring by rotation of the rotor substantially corresponds to the rotary center of the rotor. This construction of the acceleration detector produces the desired performance approximating the design value in an acceleration detector.

Acceleration detector with spring biased rotor

A structure and method for enabling a passive vehicle occupant restraint to be activated at the earliest possible timing, irrespective of a type of a collision. A floor sensor measures a deceleration G applied to the length of a vehicle and outputs the deceleration as the measurement G. An arithmetic unit carries out a predetermined arithmetic operation on the measurement G output from the floor sensor, so as to determine a function f(G). A conditional activation unit has a variation pattern of a threshold value T that varies with a variation in velocity v of a non-stationary object. The conditional activation unit reads a threshold value T corresponding to an input velocity v from the variation pattern and compares the threshold value T with the value of the function f(G). In case that the value of the function f(G) exceeds the threshold value T, an activation signal A is input to a driving circuit. A satellite sensor outputs an ON signal when a deceleration of not less than a predetermined reference value is applied to the vehicle. A threshold variation pattern selection unit changes the variation pattern of the threshold value T against the velocity v used in the conditional activation unit to another variation pattern, in response to the ON signal output from the satellite sensor.

Activation control apparatus for passive vehicle occupant restraint and method of controlling activation of passive vehicle occupant restraint

An acceleration detecting device includes a hollow housing having a side wall, a bottom wall and an opening and a cover closing the opening of the hollow housing. A weight is pivotally mounted in the hollow housing to be rotated about a locus in response to an applied acceleration. Also positioned within the housing is a contact assembly to be electrically-closed by the rotated weight. A plastic main body is held in the hollow housing along the side wall to support the contact assembly and keep the contact assembly spaced from the locus of the weight during the rotation of the weight. The plastic main body which supports the contact assembly may have a wider support along the side wall of the hollow housing, which is independent from fixture of the cover. Therefore, the contact assembly may be supported by the hollow housing through the main body in a more reliable manner. Further, the weight may rotate without any interference to the contact assembly because the contact assembly is kept off the locus of the weight.

Acceleration detecting device

A floor sensor,measures a deceleration G applied to the length of a vehicle and outputs the deceleration as the measurement G. An arithmetic unit,carries out a predetermined arithmetic operation on the measurement G output from the floor sensor,, so as to determine a function f(G). A conditional activation unit,has a variation pattern of a threshold value T that varies with a variation in velocity v of a non-stationary object. The conditional activation unit,reads a threshold value T corresponding to an input velocity v from the variation pattern and compares the threshold value T with the value of the function f(G). In case that the value of the function f(G) exceeds the threshold value T, an activation signal A is input to a driving circuit,. A satellite sensor 30 outputs an ON signal when a deceleration of not less than a predetermined reference value is applied to the vehicle. A threshold variation pattern changing unit,changes the variation pattern of the threshold value T against the velocity v used in the conditional activation unit,to another variation pattern, in response to the ON signal output from the satellite sensor,. This structure of the present invention enables a passive vehicle occupant restraint to be activated at the earliest possible timing, irrespective of a type of a collision, in which the vehicle crashes.

An acceleration detecting device includes a housing, a weight pivotally mounted inside the housing for rotating along a locus in response to an applied acceleration, a spring provided between the housing and the weight to apply a biasing force to the weight against the applied acceleration, and a contact assembly located outside the locus of the weight. The contact assembly is adapted to be electrically closed by the rotation of the weight. An arc-shaped circumference of the weight maintains the same distance between the weight and the contact assembly during the rotation of the weight. When an excessive acceleration is applied to the device, the weight rotates from an initial position against the biasing force of the spring to electrically close the contact assembly. The weight is returned to the initial position by the biasing force of the spring to electrically open the contact assembly when the excess acceleration is no longer present. Because the spring which applies the biasing force is separated from the contact assembly, the biasing force is reliably maintained for a longer period. Further, the weight can rotate without any interference to the contact assembly because the arc-shaped outer circumference of the weight maintains the contact assembly spaced from the locus of the weight.

A rolling angular velocity sensor (30) is used to detect a roll of a vehicle. When the vehicle rolls at a predetermined or greater rolling rate and a rolling angle RA becomes equal to or greater than a predetermined upper limit value RA1, a control unit (50) gives an instruction to a high-speed control valve (46) of an attitude-sustaining air bag (22) via an input port (56) to open the high-speed control valve (46). This enables the high-pressure air to be fed into an air bag body (48) of the attitude-sustaining air bag (22), which is accordingly inflated and expanded to support the attitude of a passenger in a passenger's seat. When the acceleration in the lateral direction is not sufficiently large, when the passenger fastens a seat belt (24), or when the passenger is not seated, the attitude-sustaining air bag (22) is not activated.

Attitude-supporting apparatus mounted on vehicle for sustaining attitude

An activation control system for controlling activation of a plurality of air bag systems for protecting a passenger by expanding an air bag between the passenger and a vehicular body when the vehicle makes a collision. A collision detector outputs a signal according to the direction and magnitude of the collision. A collisional direction detector detects the direction of the collision on the basis of the signal outputted from said collision detection. An ignition signal output unit outputs an ignition signal to the air bag system which is determined on the basis of the collisional direction detected.

Activation control system for vehicular air bags

A crash detection sensor having a supporting member arranged in a space in a door. The supporting member has sufficient strength to maintain its state under normal conditions. First and second electrodes, usually spaced, are provided on the supporting member. A shock larger than a predetermined level applied to the door causes the first and the second electrodes to be brought into contact with each other, thereby allowing a lateral impact to be detected in the door.

Crash sensor

An arrangement is presented for an actuation system of a passenger protective device for a motor vehicle. The system is equipped with a storage device to successively input a newer acceleration signal from an acceleration sensor at every division period obtained by dividing a measurement period so as to store and update a plurality of the latest acceleration data for the measurement period. The plurality of stored latest acceleration data are summed to obtain an integration value at the measurement period. The system compares this integration value with a predetermined value to detect a collision state of the motor vehicle. When detecting the collision state of the motor vehicle, the system actuates the passenger protective device. This system arrangement can improve the vehicle collision decision accuracy.

Actuation system for vehicle passenger protective device

Air bags are located at different positions within a vehicle. Squibs serve to fire and activate the air bags respectively. An acceleration detecting device is provided in common to the squibs for detecting an acceleration of the vehicle upon a collision of the vehicle and executing a switching operation in response to the detected vehicle acceleration. Constant-current circuits supplied with an electric power from a vehicle battery feed constant electric currents for a firing operation to the squibs respectively in response to the switching operation of the acceleration detecting device. An energy storage device serves to feed a backup electric power to the constant-current circuits when the supply of the electric power from the vehicle battery is cut off. Each of the constant-current circuits includes a first transistor for feeding an electric current to the related squib, a first resistor for detecting a level of the electric current fed to the squib, a second transistor conducting an electric current with a level which depends on the electric current level detected by the first resistor, and a second resistor for generating a voltage which depends on the electric current conducted by the second transistor and for controlling the first transistor in response to the generated voltage.

Vehicle air bag apparatus

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Toyota, Japan

Koichi Fujita