JP2000168500A - Safety device for vehicle - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a safety device for vehicle capable of aiming at the observance of the road traffic regulation and the safety of occupants by putting the occupants under an obligation to wear a seat belt for protecting a body of the occupant from the inertia force in the case of sudden stop and collision of an automobile. SOLUTION: When a buckle 11 of a seat belt 10 is fitted to a fitting part 12 and an installation existence discriminating unit 13 discriminates the installation of the seat belt, an engine start control unit 16 operates an engine 15 to the condition capable of starting, and a locking treatment part 14 locks the seat belt 10. During the traveling, a shift lever position detecting element 18 detects the position of the shift lever 17, and in the case where the shift lever positioned in the rear position or the neutral position is detected, the buckle 11 installed in the fitting part 12 can be removed, and in other case, removal of the buckle 11 from the fitting part 12 during the operation of the engine is inhibited.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a vehicle safety device having at least a safety mechanism for restraining an occupant's body by attaching a buckle of a seat belt to a mounting portion.
In particular, the present invention relates to a vehicle safety device that ensures that a seatbelt is worn by an occupant to ensure compliance with road traffic regulations and occupant safety.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, the use of seat belts is obligated by the Road Traffic Law when traveling on public roads. Therefore, various automobiles and other automobiles are provided with safety mechanisms using seat belts.

[0003] Such seat belts include a two-point seat belt that holds only the occupant's waist and a three-point seat belt that holds the occupant's waist and shoulders. The buckle attached to the occupant is attached to a mounting portion provided on the side of the seat to restrain the occupant's body.

[0004] For this reason, as long as the occupant only wears the buckle of the seat belt on the mounting portion, the occupant's body is protected from the inertial force when the vehicle suddenly stops or collides, in compliance with the regulations concerning the seat belt. be able to.

As described above, many occupants recognize the utility of the seat belt, but the work of wearing the seat belt is complicated for the occupant, and the occupant feels a sense of restraint by the seat belt. In many cases, the points deducted by the Road Traffic Law are limited to one point, and many people do not wear such seat belts.

For this reason, the emergency lock type winding device (E
LR) is used to reduce the feeling of restraint of the seat belt, and a technology is issued to issue a warning when the seat belt is not fastened to prompt the user to fasten the seat belt.

[0007]

However, even if the restraint of the seat belt is reduced by using the ELR technology, this restraint is a sensory problem for the occupants. Does not mean that

Further, even if a warning is issued when the seat belt is not fastened, the occupant who feels the burden of the restraint by the seat belt does not wear the seat belt by this warning.

In fact, since it is practically possible to travel on a public road without wearing the seat belt, even if these conventional techniques are used, it cannot be said that wearing the seat belt is promoted.

[0010] From these facts, it is an extremely important issue how to make the occupant wear a seat belt that protects the occupant's body from the inertial force when the vehicle is suddenly stopped or collides.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems (problems), and requires that an occupant always wear a seat belt that protects the occupant's body from inertial force when the vehicle suddenly stops or collides. It is an object of the present invention to provide a vehicle safety device that can comply with road traffic regulations and ensure occupant safety.

[0012]

In order to achieve the above object, a vehicle safety device according to the first aspect of the present invention has a safety mechanism for restraining an occupant's body by attaching a buckle of a seat belt to a mounting portion. In a vehicle safety device having at least a vehicle, a detecting means for detecting whether or not the buckle of the seat belt is fastened to the mounting portion; and Start control means for controlling the engine to be startable, and belt lock means for prohibiting removal of the buckle attached to the mounting portion while the engine of the vehicle is operating are provided.

According to the first aspect of the present invention, it is detected whether or not the buckle of the seat belt is attached to the mounting portion, and the engine of the automobile can be started only when the attachment of the seat belt is detected. To prevent the removal of the buckle attached to the mounting portion while the engine is running, (1) the seat belt must be worn as one of the operating conditions of the engine, and the occupant should forget to fasten the seat belt. (2) It is possible to achieve compliance with road traffic regulations relating to seat belts.

[0014]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Preferred embodiments of a vehicle safety device according to the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the following, a case where the present invention is applied to a passenger car will be described, and a case will be described in which only a seat belt of an occupant in a driver seat is attached or detached.

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram showing a configuration related to a safety mechanism of a passenger car used in this embodiment. In the figure, parts other than the safety mechanism according to the present invention are not shown.

As shown in FIG. 1, the passenger car includes a mounting presence / absence determining unit 13, a lock processing unit 14, an engine operation control unit 16, a shift lever position detecting unit 18, and an overall control unit 19. .

The wearing presence / absence judging section 13 is provided with the seat belt 10.
Is a processing unit that determines whether or not the buckle 11 attached to the mounting unit 12 is mounted on the mounting unit 12. Specifically, based on output signals from photosensors 12a and 12b disposed inside the mounting unit 12, It is determined whether or not the buckle 11 has been attached to the attachment portion 12 (hereinafter simply referred to as “seat belt 10 attachment”).

The lock processing section 14 is a processing section for locking or unlocking the buckle 11 inserted into the buckle insertion opening 12c of the mounting section 12, and specifically, the control section 1
When an instruction to lock the buckle 11 is received from the control unit 9, an instruction signal to perform electromagnetic locking is output to the electromagnetic lock mechanisms 12 d and 12 e disposed inside the mounting unit 12.

The engine start controller 16 controls the engine 15
The engine start control unit 16 controls the start of the engine 15 from the control unit 19.
When the start permission signal is received, the engine 15 is brought into a startable state.

That is, in the passenger car used in the present embodiment, the engine 15 is not started immediately when the key is turned on as in a conventional passenger car, but is started by the engine start control unit 16. It is assumed that the engine 15 is started only when the key 15 is set in a startable state and the key operation is performed.

The reason why the new condition is added to the start of the engine 15 is to oblige the occupant to fasten the seat belt 10 and to secure the occupant by wearing the seat belt.

To explain this point more specifically, for example, in the case of a gasoline engine, a mechanism for starting the engine by moving the piston up and down by ignition by a spark plug is employed. Such engine start control is performed by restricting electrically or mechanically stopping the supply of gasoline to the inside of the engine.

In the case of a diesel engine, a mechanism for injecting fuel into air heated to a high temperature by compression to ignite is employed, so that such compression is controlled mechanically or fuel injection is restricted. Thus, the engine start control is performed.

The engine start control unit 16 includes:
The control unit 19 is sequentially notified of whether the engine 15 is stopped. This is because the control content of the control unit 19 differs depending on whether the engine 15 is in the stopped state or the operating state, as described later.

The shift lever position detecting section 18 is a detecting mechanism for detecting a position of a shift lever operated by an occupant.
Specifically, when the shift lever 17 is located at the rear position or the neutral position, a signal indicating unlock is output to the control unit 19, and the shift lever 17
Is in a position other than the rear position or the neutral position, a lock signal is output to the control unit 19.

As described above, the reason for outputting the lever position of the shift lever 17 to the control unit 19 is that there is no need to lock the seat belt 10 when the vehicle is moved backwards or when the vehicle is not moved. On the contrary, it is preferable that the vehicle is not locked for driving a passenger car.

Based on the determination result output from the wearing presence / absence determining unit 13 and the signal output from the shift lever position detecting unit 18, the control unit 19 issues an instruction to lock the seat belt to the lock processing unit 14, This is a control unit that gives permission to start the engine to the start control unit 16.

More specifically, if the control unit 19 receives a signal indicating that the seat belt 10 is fastened from the fastness determination unit 13 when the engine 15 is stopped,
The engine start control unit 16 is permitted to start the engine, and the lock processing unit 14 is instructed to lock the buckle 11.

As will be described in detail later, after the engine 15 is started in response to the engine start permission,
The seat belt 10 is locked. Seat belt 1
If the seat belt is locked only when the seat belt 10 is worn, the locking and unlocking of the seat belt 10 is a complicated procedure.

If a signal indicating that the seat belt 10 is fastened is received from the presence / absence determining unit 13 while the engine 15 is operating, the control unit 19 causes the lock processing unit 1 to operate.
In step 4, only the locking instruction of the seat belt 10 is issued. For example, once the seat belt 10 is
, And then re-attach the seat belt.

If the shift lever 17 is switched to the rear position or the neutral position while the engine 15 is operating and the control unit 19 receives a belt unlock signal from the position detection unit 18, the control unit 19 locks. The processing unit 14 is instructed to unlock the seat belt 10. Note that even when the engine 15 is stopped, the control unit 19 instructs the lock processing unit 14 to release the lock.

Next, a procedure for locking or unlocking the seat belt by the passenger car shown in FIG. 1 will be described.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a procedure for locking or unlocking the seat belt by the passenger car shown in FIG. Here, it is assumed that the engine 15 is stopped.

As shown in FIG. 2, a key insertion hole provided near the steering wheel of the passenger car is inserted, and when the power is turned on by turning the key (step S20).
1) The buckle 11 attached to the seat belt 10 is attached to the attaching portion 12 and the wearing presence / absence determining portion 13 determines whether or not the seat belt 10 is worn (step S202).

If the seat belt 10 has not been fastened (No at step S203), the process proceeds to step S202, where the presence / absence determination section 13 continues to make a determination. No engine start instruction is given to the unit 16. For this reason,
When the seat belt 10 is not worn, the engine 15 does not start even if the key is further turned to the on state.

On the other hand, when the seat belt 10 is fastened (Yes at step S203), the control unit 19 permits the engine start control unit 16 to start the engine, and the engine 15 can be started (step S203). Step S2
04).

When the occupant turns on the key to turn on the engine, the engine 15 starts. After the engine starts, the control unit 19 issues a lock instruction to the lock processing unit 14 to lock the seat belt 10 ( Step S
205).

Thereafter, the shift lever position detector 18 detects the position of the shift lever 17 (step S206),
When the position of the shift lever 17 is the rear position or the neutral position (Yes at Step S207),
The lock processing unit 14 unlocks the seat belt 10 based on the instruction of the control unit 19 (Step S208).

On the other hand, if the position of the shift lever 17 is not the rear position or the neutral position (No at step S207), the seat belt 10
Is continued (step S209).

Although not shown for the sake of convenience, when the shift lever 17 is temporarily set to the rear position or the neutral position and the position of the shift lever 17 is further updated thereafter, the seat belt 10 is locked again.

Steps S206 to S209
Is repeated until the engine 15 stops (No at Step S210). If the engine 15 stops (Yes at Step S210), the control unit 19 sends the lock processing unit 1
4, an unlock instruction is issued, and the seat belt 10 is unlocked (step S211).

As described above, in this embodiment,
When the buckle 11 of the seatbelt 10 is attached to the attachment portion 12 and the wearing presence / absence determining portion 13 determines that the seatbelt has been worn, the engine start control portion 1
6, the engine 15 is permitted to start and the engine 15 can be started. At the same time, the seat belt 10 is locked by the lock processing unit 14. In other words, it is possible to prevent the occupant from forgetting to fasten the seat belt 10, and (2) it is possible to comply with the road traffic regulations related to the seat belt.

In this embodiment, the shift lever position detecting section 18 detects the position of the shift lever 17 and, if the detected shift lever position is the rear position or the neutral position, the buckle attached to the mounting section 12. 1
1 is detachable, and when the detected shift lever position is other than the rear position or the neutral position, the removal of the buckle 11 from the attachment portion 12 during the operation of the engine is prohibited. In this case, the seat belt 10 can be removed to improve the operability. However, the seat belt 10 may not be removed even in the rear position, and the seat belt may be securely attached. Of course.

In this embodiment, a case has been described in which only the seat belt of the occupant in the driver's seat is targeted. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the seat of the passenger seat or the rear seat is not limited to this. It can also be applied to belts.

[0045]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Detects whether the seat belt buckle is attached to the mounting part, enables the engine of the car to be started only when the seat belt is detected to be mounted, and attaches it to the mounting part while the car engine is running. Since the removal of the attached buckle is configured to be prohibited, (1) the wearing of the seat belt is one of the operating conditions of the engine, and the occupant can be prevented from forgetting to fasten the seat belt, and (2)
There is an effect that a vehicle safety device capable of complying with a road traffic regulation concerning a seat belt can be obtained.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram showing a configuration related to a safety mechanism of a passenger car used in this embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a procedure for locking or unlocking a seat belt by the passenger car shown in FIG. 1;

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Seat belt 11 Buckle 12 Attachment part 12a Photosensor 12b Photosensor 12c Buckle insertion opening 12d Electromagnetic lock mechanism 12e Electromagnetic lock mechanism 13 Attached presence / absence judgment part 14 Lock processing part 15 Engine 16 Engine start control part 17 Shift lever 18 Shift lever position detection Department

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A vehicle safety device having at least a safety mechanism for attaching a buckle of a seat belt to an attachment portion and restraining an occupant's body, wherein whether or not the buckle of the seat belt is attached to the attachment portion. Detecting means for detecting the wearing of the seatbelt by the detecting means, and starting control means for controlling the engine of the vehicle so as to be able to start only when the engine of the vehicle is operating. A safety device for a vehicle, comprising: belt locking means for prohibiting removal of a buckle attached to an attachment portion.