Abstract: A vehicle operation control device utilizes a plurality of sensors and receivers to develop an absolute rule set and a relative rule set that take into account the capabilities of the vehicle, the condition of the roadway, the preferences of the operator and the operation of surrounding vehicles. The vehicle operation control device uses information from both an absolute rule set and a relative rule set to define a set of operating principles that can be varied as necessary to improve safely and the comfort of the operator and/or the passengers within the controlled vehicle. The absolute rule set is based primarily on road information and operating regulations with which an operator should normally comply during operation of any vehicle. The relative rule set is based primarily on the relative positioning and movement of other vehicles in the vicinity of the controlled vehicle or farther along the intended path.

Abstract: A crash mode determining unit comprises first and second acceleration sensors disposed on both sides of a vehicle and a third acceleration sensor disposed almost at a center of the vehicle. A relative line integration length of one of the integrated outputs of the accelerations detected by the first and second acceleration sensors with respect to the integrated output of the acceleration detected by the third acceleration sensor is calculated. The relative line integration length of the integrated output becomes long when a crash mode is either a pole crash or a under-ride crash. Therefore, the crash mode of the pole crash or the under-ride crash can be determined by comparing the relative line integration length with a predetermined length.

Abstract: A trigger device for a vehicle safety apparatus includes an acceleration sensor for detecting an acceleration of a vehicle and generating an electric acceleration signal representative thereof, an integration section for integrating the acceleration signal during each given integration period and generating an integration value representative of a result of the integrating, a determination section for determining whether or not a collision of the vehicle is present on the basis of the integration value generated by the integration section, and a trigger section for triggering the vehicle safety apparatus when the determination section determines a collision of the vehicle to be present.

Abstract: 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.