The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jul. 17, 2001
Filed:
Oct. 12, 1999
Satoshi Hada, Wako, JP;
Yoichi Sugimoto, Wako, JP;
Shoji Ichikawa, Wako, JP;
Yoshihiro Urai, Wako, JP;
Honda Giken Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
A vehicle travel safety device carries out automatic braking in order to prevent a subject vehicle from coming into contact with an object, and proximate expansion of an air bag is reliably prevented. When there is a possibility of a subject vehicle coming into contact with an object, automatic braking is carried out in order to prevent the contact. If a seat belt wear state sensor detects that an occupant is not wearing a seat belt and an air bag expansion possibility estimating means estimates that there is a possibility of an air bag expanding, by means of an automatic braking means, the deceleration rate of the automatic braking is reduced so that the occupant is prevented from moving forwards due to the inertia accompanying the braking and causing proximate expansion. When the speed of the subject vehicle at the time when automatic braking is started is high, the relative speed between the subject vehicle and the object at the time when automatic braking is started is high. Thus, the time taken for the subject vehicle to come into contact with the object is short or the speed of the subject vehicle at which it will come into contact with the object is high. Therefore, the air bag expansion possibility estimating means estimates that there is a possibility of the air bag expanding.