can be configured to deploy and inflate in response to a crash event to protect passenger 508 from injury. For example, during a front-end crash event, passenger 508 may move toward dashboard 506 and passenger airbag 502 can inflate between passenger 508 and dashboard 506 to prevent passenger 508 from hitting dashboard 506.

During a front-end crash event where passenger 508 occupies passenger seat 108, passenger airbag can extend from dashboard 506 to passenger 508. During a front-end crash event, one or more straps 504 can stay intact to inflate airbag 502 to a desired size, shape, and volume. The desired size, shape, and volume can be configured to protect passenger 508 from injury during a front-end crash event.

FIG. 6 is a passenger side view of vehicle interior 500. Passenger seat 108 can be unoccupied. Passenger airbag 502 can be configured to deploy and inflate in response to a crash event to provide support for an inboard airbag. For example, during a far-side crash event in which passenger seat 108 is unoccupied, passenger airbag 502 can inflate between a seat back of passenger seat 108 and dashboard 506 to provide sufficient support to an inboard airbag. Together, the inboard airbag and passenger airbag 502 can prevent far-side excursion of a vehicle driver.

One or more straps 504 can be configured to tear or extend in response to a far-side crash event. One or more straps 504 can be configured to tear in response to the far-side crash event. The one or more straps 504 can tear to enable passenger airbag 502 to inflate to a desired size, shape, and volume. Tears 510 in straps 504 enable passenger airbag 502 to extend to an increased size, shape, and/or volume. The desired size, shape, and/or volume can be configured to inflate from dashboard 506 to a seat back of passenger seat 108.

Additionally, or alternatively, one or more straps 504 can comprise a pyrotechnic cutter. The pyrotechnic cutter can be activated in response to a far-side crash event and/or an absence of a passenger in passenger seat 108. The activated pyrotechnic cutter can cut one or more straps 504 at tears 510. Cutting one or more straps 504 enables passenger airbag 502 to inflate to a larger size, shape, and/or volume as compared to inflating passenger airbag 502 with intact one or more straps 504.

Additionally, or alternatively, one or more straps 504 can be configured to extend its length in response to a far-side crash event. One or more straps 504 can comprise other means of tearing or extending to inflate passenger airbag 502 to multiple sizes. For example, the one or more straps 504 can comprise tear seams or other appropriate means known to a person of skill in art.

FIG. 7 is a front view of vehicle interior 100 during a far-side crash event. In the absence of a passenger in passenger seat 108, passenger airbag 502 can be inflated in the passenger area to provide support for inboard airbag 104. Inboard airbag 104 can be installed on an inboard side of driver seat 106 and inflate in between driver seat 106 and passenger seat 108. Together, passenger airbag 502 and inboard airbag 104 can prevent or reduce far-side excursion of vehicle driver 102.

Vehicle driver 102 may move toward the far-side or passenger area 204 of the vehicle during far-side excursion. As vehicle driver 102 comes into contact with inboard airbag 104, inboard airbag 104 can inhibit the lateral movement of vehicle driver 102.

Passenger airbag 502 can be inflated to a size that fills a portion of passenger area 204 from the dashboard to a seat back of passenger seat 108. Inboard airbag 104 may come into contact with passenger airbag 502 because of a lateral movement of vehicle driver 102. The combination of inflated passenger airbag 502 and inflated inboard airbag 104 can prevent vehicle driver 102 from moving into the passenger area 204 because the volume of passenger airbag 502 occupies a portion of the passenger area which supports inboard airbag 104.

FIG. 8 is a process 800 for a controller of a vehicle airbag system. The controller can receive an output signal from one or more sensors of a vehicle. The vehicle can comprise one or more crash sensors configured to output a signal including crash detection information. The controller can receive the signal with crash detection information at process step 802 and determine whether a crash event is a far-side crash event based on the crash event detection information at process step 804. The vehicle can comprise one or more sensors configured to output a signal including passenger information. The controller can receive the output signal with passenger detection information at process step 806 and determine whether there is a passenger in the passenger seat of the vehicle based on the passenger detection information at process step 808. If the controller determines at process step 810 that there is not a passenger in the passenger seat and that the crash event is a far-side, then the controller can deploy the inboard airbag and the passenger airbag at process step 812.

Additionally, if the passenger airbag comprises an electronically controlled mechanism to tear or expand the passenger airbag straps, process step 812 can further comprise controlling the mechanism to tear or extend the straps. The controller can generate a message or signal to deploy the airbags and control the straps and transmit the message or signal to a further controller.

For example, the controller of process 800 can directly control one or more airbags in the airbag system. Additionally, or alternatively, the controller can indirectly control the one or more airbags in the airbag system by transmitting a control signal to further controller.

If the controller determines that a passenger is present in the vehicle at process step 808, process 800 can end. If the controller determines that the crash event is not a far-side crash event at process step 804, process 800 can end. If the controller determines that only one of the conditions is satisfied at process step 810, process 800 can end. For example, the process can end without deploying both the inboard airbag and the passenger airbag because only one condition is satisfied. Such as when a passenger is not present, but the crash event is a front-end crash event or when the crash event is a far-side crash event, but a passenger is present in the passenger seat.

FIG. 9 is a method 900 of deploying an airbag arrangement. Step 902 comprises receiving or obtaining a passenger sensor signal, such as a weight sensor signal, including passenger information. Step 904 comprises receiving or obtaining a sensor signal, such as a crash sensor signal, including crash event information. Step 906 comprises determining whether a passenger is present in a vehicle based on the information included on the received or obtained signal of step 902. Step 908 comprises determining whether a crash event is a far-side crash event based on the information included on the received or obtained signal of step 904. Step 910 comprises deploying an inboard airbag in response to determining that a passenger is absent from step 906 and determining a far-side crash event from step 908. Step 912 comprises deploying a passenger airbag in response to determining that a passenger is absent from step 906 and determining a far-side crash event from step 908. It should be understood that the steps of method 900 are not restricted to the order shown.

In order to provide additional context for various embodiments described herein, FIG. 10 and the following discussion are intended to provide a brief, general description of a suitable computing environment 1000 in which the various embodiments of the embodiment described herein can be implemented. While the embodiments have been described above in the general context of computer-executable instructions that can run on one or more computers, those skilled in the art will recognize that the embodiments can be also implemented in combination with other program modules and/or as a combination of hardware and software.

Generally, program modules include routines, programs, components, data structures, etc., that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. Moreover, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the various methods can be practiced with other computer system configurations, including single-processor or multiprocessor computer systems, minicomputers, mainframe computers, Internet of Things (IoT) devices, distributed computing systems, as well as personal computers (e.g., ruggedized personal computers), field-programmable gate arrays, hand-held computing devices, microprocessor-based or programmable consumer electronics, and the like, each of which can be operatively coupled to one or more associated devices.

The illustrated embodiments of the embodiments herein can be also practiced in distributed computing environments where certain tasks are performed by remote processing devices that are linked through a communications network. In a distributed computing environment, program modules can be located in both local and remote memory storage devices.

Computing devices typically comprise a variety of media, which can comprise computer-readable storage media, machine-readable storage media, and/or communications media, which two terms are used herein differently from one another as follows. Computer-readable storage media or machine-readable storage media can be any available storage media that can be accessed by the computer and comprises both volatile and nonvolatile media, removable and non-removable media. By way of example, and not limitation, computer-readable storage media or machine-readable storage media can be implemented in connection with any method or technology for storage of information such as computer-readable or machine-readable instructions, program modules, structured data, or unstructured data.

Computer-readable storage media can comprise, but are not limited to, random access memory (RAM), read only memory (ROM), electrically erasable programmable read only memory (EEPROM), flash memory or other memory technology, compact disk read only memory (CD ROM), digital versatile disk (DVD), Blu-ray disc (BD) or other optical disk storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, solid state drives or other solid state storage devices, or other tangible and/or non-transitory media which can be used to store desired information. In this regard, the terms “tangible” or “non-transitory” herein as applied to storage, memory, or computer-readable media, are to be understood to exclude only propagating transitory signals per se as modifiers and do not relinquish rights to all standard storage, memory or computer-readable media that are not only propagating transitory signals per se.

Computer-readable storage media can be accessed by one or more local or remote computing devices, e.g., via access requests, queries, or other data retrieval protocols, for a variety of operations with respect to the information stored by the medium.

Communications media typically embody computer-readable instructions, data structures, program modules or other structured or unstructured data in a data signal such as a modulated data signal, e.g., a carrier wave or other transport mechanism, and comprise any information delivery or transport media. The term “modulated data signal” or signals refers to a signal that has one or more of its characteristics set or changed in such a manner as to encode information in one or more signals. By way of example, and not limitation, communication media comprise wired media, such as a wired network or direct-wired connection, and wireless media such as acoustic, RF, optic, infrared, and other wireless media.

With reference again to FIG. 10, the example environment 1000 for implementing various embodiments of the aspects described herein comprises a computer 1002 (e.g., a controller), the computer 1002 including a processing unit 1004, a system memory 1006 and a system bus 1008. The system bus 1008 couples system components including, but not limited to, the system memory 1006 to the processing unit 1004. The processing unit 1004 can be any of various commercially available processors, field-programmable gate array, AI accelerator application-specific integrated circuit, or other suitable processors. Dual microprocessors and other multi-processor architectures can also be employed as the processing unit 1004.

The system bus 1008 can be any of several types of bus structure that can further interconnect to a memory bus (with or without a memory controller), a peripheral bus, and a local bus using any of a variety of commercially available bus architectures. The system memory 1006 comprises ROM 1010 and RAM 1012. A basic input/output system (BIOS) can be stored in a non-volatile memory such as ROM, erasable programmable read only memory (EPROM), EEPROM, which BIOS contains the basic routines that help to transfer information between elements within the computer 1002, such as during startup. The RAM 1012 can also comprise a high-speed RAM such as static RAM for caching data. It is noted that unified Extensible Firmware Interface(s) can be utilized herein.

The computer 1002 further comprises an internal hard disk drive (HDD) 1014 (e.g., EIDE, SATA), one or more external storage devices 1016 (e.g., a magnetic floppy disk drive (FDD) 1016, a memory stick or flash drive reader, a memory card reader, etc.) and an optical disk drive 1020 (e.g., which can read or write from a disk 1022 such as a CD-ROM disc, a DVD, a BD, etc.). While the internal HDD 1014 is illustrated as located within the computer 1002, the internal HDD 1014 can also be configured for external use in a suitable chassis (not shown). Additionally, while not shown in environment 1000, a solid-state drive (SSD) could be used in addition to, or in place of, an HDD 1014. The HDD 1014, external storage device(s) 1016 and optical disk drive 1020 can be connected to the system bus 1008 by an HDD interface 1024, an external storage interface 1026 and an optical drive interface 1028, respectively. The interface 1024 for external drive implementations can comprise at least one or both of Universal Serial Bus (USB) and Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 1394 interface technologies. Other external drive connection technologies are within contemplation of the embodiments described herein.