Determining an occupancy status of a vehicle seat

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10589713-B2
Application number	US-201615380639-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 15, 2016
Priority date	Dec 15, 2016
Publication date	Mar 17, 2020
Grant date	Mar 17, 2020

Abstract

A computer that may be programmed to: in response to receiving an indication that a vehicle is approaching a geofence boundary, retract slack in a webbing associated with a seat in the vehicle by actuating a seatbelt retractor; then receive measurement data from one or more sensors associated with the seat; using the data, determine whether an occupant occupies the seat; and when no occupant occupies the seat, then transmit an instruction to stop the vehicle.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A computer, comprising: a processor and memory storing instructions, the instructions comprising, to:
operate a vehicle in a geofence region in a fully autonomous mode, wherein the geofence region is within a geofence boundary that defines a periphery of the geofence region;
determine that the vehicle is approaching the geofence boundary; and
based on determining that the vehicle is approaching the geofence boundary, determine whether attempt to hand-off control to a driver of the vehicle or to stop the vehicle by:
determining whether the driver occupies a driver's seat of the vehicle by:
retracting slack in a webbing associated with the driver's seat by actuating a seatbelt retractor, and
using data from a seatbelt payout sensor and a seat position sensor, determining a length (L USED ) of the webbing extended from the retractor; and

when the driver is determined to occupy the driver's seat, then attempting to hand-off control of the vehicle to the driver; and
when the driver is determined to not occupy the driver's seat, then transmit an instruction to stop the vehicle.

2. The computer of claim 1 , wherein the instructions further comprise to: determine whether the driver occupies the driver's seat using data from a seatbelt buckle sensor.

3. The computer of claim 2 , wherein the instructions further comprise to: determine whether the driver occupies the driver's seat by: determining that the buckle sensor indicates a latched state; using the payout sensor, determining a length L EXTENDED of the webbing extended from the retractor; and determining the length L USED by subtracting a length L EMPTY, POSITION from the length L EXTENDED , wherein the length L EMPTY, POSITION corresponds to a position of the driver's seat relative to a body of the vehicle, wherein the instructions further comprise to determine that the driver's seat is unoccupied when the length L USED is less than a predetermined threshold.

4. The computer of claim 1 , wherein the instructions further comprise to: determine whether the driver occupies the driver's seat in response to a trigger from another vehicle computer.

5. The computer of claim 1 , wherein attempting to hand-off vehicle control to the driver is further based on a characteristic of the driver, wherein the characteristic includes at least one of an alertness level of the driver, an age of the driver, or a sobriety of the driver.

6. A method, comprising:
operating a vehicle in a geofence region in a fully autonomous mode, wherein the geofence region is within a geofence boundary that defines a periphery of the geofence region;
determining that the vehicle is approaching a geofence boundary; and
based on determining that the vehicle is approaching the geofence boundary, determining to either to hand-off control of the vehicle to a driver of the vehicle or to stop the vehicle, wherein determining whether to hand-off control or to stop the vehicle comprises:
determining whether the driver occupies a driver's seat of the vehicle by:
retracting slack in a webbing associated with the driver's seat by actuating a seatbelt retractor; and then
using data from a seatbelt payout sensor and a seat position sensor, determining a length (L USED ) of the webbing extended from the retractor.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the determining further comprises using data from a seatbelt buckle sensor.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein determining whether the driver occupies the driver's seat further comprises: determining that the buckle sensor indicates a latched state; using the payout sensor, determining a length L EXTENDED of the webbing extended from the retractor; determining the length L USED by subtracting a length L EMPTY, POSITION from the length L EXTENDED , wherein the length L EMPTY, POSITION corresponds to a position of the driver's seat relative to a body of the vehicle; and determining that no driver occupies the driver's seat when the length L USED is less than a predetermined threshold.

9. The method of claim 6 , further comprising: determining that the driver occupies the driver's seat; and then attempting to hand-off control of the vehicle to the driver.

10. The method of claim 6 , further comprising: determining that the driver does not occupy the driver's seat; and then transmitting an instruction to stop the vehicle.

Assignees

• Ford Global Tech Llc

Inventors

• Boran Colm
• Crawford Mark
• Rhode Douglas Scott

Classifications

• B60W2540/227

  Position in the vehicle · CPC title

• B60W60/0053

  from vehicle to occupant · CPC title

• B60R2022/4808

  Sensing means arrangements therefor · CPC title

• B60W40/08

  related to drivers or passengers · CPC title

• B60W2556/50

  of positioning data, e.g. GPS [Global Positioning System] data · CPC title