Patent ID: 6116638
Filing Date: 2000-09-12
Classification: B60N,B60R

Abstract:
A control apparatus for an airbag of a vehicle, comprising:a state detection sensor to detect a presence or absence of a passenger at a vehicle seat in accordance with an output of a passenger detection sensor;a control unit to inhibit an airbag for the vehicle seat from inflating when an absence of a passenger at the vehicle seat is detected in accordance with the detected result of the state detection sensor; andfailure detection means for detecting a failure of the passenger detection sensor and informing the failure state to said control unit;wherein the failure of the passenger detection sensor includes a hardware error of the passenger detection sensor, in which the output of the passenger detection sensor is not input to said state detection sensor, andsaid control unit holds a control state before failure detection and inhibits the airbag from inflating on the basis of the held control state in response to the informed failure state representing the hardware error of the passenger detection sensor.