Patent ID: 8047564

Claim:
An occupant side-impact protection apparatus for a motor vehicle, the apparatus comprising: an inflatable cushion stored in a folded configuration and deploys from a seat assembly within the motor vehicle; an inflator configured to provide gas to inflate the cushion; wherein the cushion is configured to inflate to protect an occupant of the vehicle; and a tether to provide tension to tailor a deployment trajectory of the cushion; wherein the tether is coupled to the cushion at a first coupling location and a second coupling location, the tether being disposed externally relative to the cushion; wherein a distance along the tether from the first coupling location to the second coupling location is less than a distance along the cushion from the first coupling location to the second coupling location; and wherein, upon deployment, one of the first and second coupling locations is located nearer to a seat back of the seat assembly than the other of the first and second coupling locations and the other of the first and second coupling locations is located at a forward location relative to the one of the first and second coupling locations in a vehicle longitudinal direction.