Gm Global Technolgoy Operations, Inc.

Mark O Neal

Dorel M Sala

Chin-Hsu Lin

Jenne-tai Wang

Jenne-Tai Wang

Louis D Thole

Mark A Kramarczyk

Kenneth J Baron

Bing Deng

Joseph D Mc Cleary

David Acosta

Scott David Thomas

Gary Lee Jones

John P Weiss

Steven Christopher Tengler

Cody R Hansen

Alexander Millerman

Matthew M Highstrom

Steven Swanson

Robert P Roesser

Andrew W Gellatly

Yi-pen Cheng

Martin A Hogan

Abir Chakraborty

Peter J Gareau

Ke Dong

Bhavna Mathur

James E Williamson

Ming Tian

Nataraju Vusirikala

Deborah Lucia Klose

Heath Knight-Newbury

Jian Tu

An adjustable seat for a vehicle including a first seat section configured to support a lower leg portion of the passenger when the passenger is sitting facing the first direction and a second seat section configured to support an upper leg portion of the passenger when the passenger is sitting facing the first direction and a torso and head portion of the passenger when the passenger is sitting facing the second direction. The adjustable seat also comprising a third seat section configured to support the torso and head portion of the passenger when the passenger is sitting facing the first direction and the upper leg portion of the passenger when the passenger is sitting facing the second direction. The adjustable seat also comprising a fourth seat section configured to support the lower leg portion of the passenger when the passenger is sitting facing the second direction.

Reversible v sleeping seat

An inflatable blanket for a vehicle includes a first blanket layer, a second blanket layer coupled to the first blanket layer, and an airbag disposed between the first blanket layer and the second blanket layer. The airbag has a deflated configuration and an inflated configuration to protect a vehicle occupant when the vehicle is subjected to an external force.

Inflatable blanket for vehicle

A system and method for optimizing various vehicle safety systems, such as airbags and seat belt load tensioning limiters, for a particular occupant of a vehicle seat, such as the vehicle driver or passenger, based on the weight of the occupant and the fore-aft position of the seat. The method senses the mass of the occupant and the position of the seat and classifies the combination of the mass and position. The method then determines the optimized setting of the safety systems for that combination classification, and automatically sets the safety systems to that setting. The method can also determine the optimized setting of the safety systems based on whether the occupant is wearing a seat belt.

Sensor based occupant protection system

A method and system for recognizing and verifying the identity of a driver and front seat passenger of a vehicle. A vehicle owner uploads profile data for several individuals who may be a driver or passenger to a database in the vehicle. When a driver or passenger enters the vehicle, the system uses the profile data&#x2014;which can include height, weight, and gender information about the individual&#x2014;along with vehicle data such as seat position, to identify the driver or passenger from the database. The profile data for the known individual is then used to adjust the position of the seat and other components in the cockpit. The profile data is also used by various safety and convenience systems onboard the vehicle.

Occupant recognition and verification system

A system and method for classifying the optimization of safety features on a vehicle for a driver of the vehicle based on the height and mass of the driver. The method includes determining a number of basic driver sizes based on driver height and mass and determining a driver's seat position for each basic driver height. The method also identifies a set of tunable design variables that are used to adjust the safety features of the vehicle and performs design optimization analysis to identify an optimal design for the vehicle safety features for each of the basic driver sizes. The method then identifies the design from the optimal designs that provides the best performance for randomly selected reference drivers and classifies all drivers into a predetermined number of classifications where each classification represents a particular optimal design.

Performance-based classification method and algorithm for drivers

A vehicle includes at least one reconfigurable system having a plurality of selectively variable parameters, and a controller that is operatively connected to the at least one reconfigurable system to control the values of the plurality of selectively variable parameters. The controller is also configured to receive data indicative of physical characteristics of a person from at least one data storage medium, and configured to determine values of the selectively variable parameters according to a predetermined algorithm based on the data indicative of physical characteristics of a person. The controller is also configured to cause the selectively variable parameters to assume the determined values.

Vehicle personalization system

A method for predicting potential injury assessment for at least one occupant of a vehicle involved in a crash event and for broadcasting assessment of the occupant to a medical response unit. An occupant seated in each seat of a vehicle is detected. Occupant data is obtained relating to physical characteristics of each occupant seated in the vehicle. A crash event involving the vehicle is detected. Vehicle dynamic data and safety restraint data during the crash event is recorded. The potential injury assessment of each occupant is predicted by an injury assessment processing module based on the vehicle dynamic data and safety restraint data obtained during the crash event and the occupant data of each occupant in the vehicle. The corresponding injury assessment of each occupant of the vehicle is broadcast to a medical response unit.

Individualizable post-crash assist system

A system and method for limiting the amount of satellite radio digital bandwidth used by allowing a vehicle to record and store songs broadcast by the satellite and then play the songs from the vehicle the next times the songs are to be broadcast. When a song is selected to be broadcast, the method determines whether a certain percentage of vehicles will have the song recorded on the vehicle, and if so, will broadcast a song code identifying the song to allow the vehicle to play the recorded song.

Method to minimize data download during satellite radio broadcasts

In an exemplary embodiment a system provides vehicle information to an operator of a vehicle having a plurality of components. The system comprises an onboard database configured to store vehicle-specific data and behavior-specific data and an operator interface. The system includes an onboard processor coupled to the onboard database, the plurality of components, and the operator interface. The onboard processor is configured to provide requested vehicle-specific data to the operator in response to an operator request via the operator interface. The onboard processor is also configured to receive operator-behavioral data from the plurality of components, recognize patterns of operation from the operator-behavioral data, and provide the behavior-specific data to the operator in response to the recognized patterns in the operator-behavioral data.

Methods and systems for providing vehicle information

An adjustable head tool (AHT) is configured for positioning a free motion headform (FMH) having a regulated FMH backoff requirement prior to an impact between the FMH and a target surface having a target point. The AHT has a built-in or a variable backoff angle relative to the position of the target point, and includes a cranial portion and an adjustable facial template. The cranial portion encloses a linkage assembly, and the facial template has one or more facial features. A rotary dial translates the facial template with respect to the cranial portion to maintain the regulated FMH backoff requirement. The cranial portion includes a forehead impact zone having a first set of demarcations, and the rotary dial has a second set of demarcations corresponding to the first set of demarcations. The dial is set so the second set of demarcations matches the first set during positioning of the AHT.

Adjustable face tool for positioning a free motion headform

A hood elevation system for a vehicle includes an actuator configured to selectively move at least a portion of a vehicle hood between an elevated and a retracted position. The hood elevation system also includes a motor and a spring. The spring biases the hood toward its elevated position, and the motor is configured to retract the hood, thereby compressing the spring.

Hood elevation system

A hood elevation system for a vehicle includes an actuator configured to selectively move at least a portion of a vehicle hood between an elevated and a retracted position. The hood elevation system also includes a self-locking mechanism configured to allow movement of the hood between the elevated and retracted positions initiated by the actuator, but to resist retraction of the hood as a result of certain loads applied to the hood. The self-locking mechanism thus enables repeated elevation and retraction of the hood. In a preferred embodiment, the self-locking mechanism is configured to deform, thereby absorbing energy from an impact to the hood.

This invention relates to a vehicle hood assembly that is operative to raise the rearward and frontward portions of a vehicle hood. The system includes an actuator selectively extendable to raise the rearward portion of a vehicle hood from a first position to a higher second position. A striker of novel design enables the frontward portion of the hood to rise as the rearward portion rises when the striker is engaged with a latch member. The latch member may be disengaged from the striker without extending the actuator, enabling the hood to reach a third position ideal for vehicle service and thus allowing a nonreversible-type actuator to be employed. A method of elevating the vehicle hood with respect to the vehicle body is also provided.

Vehicle hood assembly and method of elevating vehicle hood

A method is disclosed for managing variation in acceleration values obtained from a vehicle acceleration sensor for use in on-board computer based crash evaluation algorithm. Sources contributing to the variation are identified and a determination is made of the magnitude of the variation from each source to a selected multiple of a standard deviation, for example, 3 to 6 &#x3c3;. The variation for each source is suitably combined to produce a database of acceleration-time history with the combined variations for use in calibrating and or validating a candidate crash algorithm.

Variation manager for crash sensing algorithms

A computer based method for activating a vehicular safety device for passenger protection is disclosed. The method uses a centrally located front-end acceleration sensor and a passenger compartment sensor. When a crash situation is sensed, current acceleration data is integrated to produce velocity values for both sensor locations. Actual displacement values for the front-end sensor are calculated as well as displacement values based on absolute values of acceleration of that sensor. The velocity and displacement values are selectively used in at least three vehicle crash mode analyses. Examples of such crash modes are full frontal-like modes, pole-like modes and angle-like modes. When appropriate threshold values are exceeded, device activation for one or more activation stages is initiated.

Growing community of inventors

Rochester, MI, United States of America

Mark O Neal