Patent ID: 6893079

Claim:
A motor vehicle body, comprising: a side impact protection system for a motor vehicle having a stowed position and a deployed position, comprising a first L-shaped rigid structure disposed in a front rocker region and a second L-shaped rigid structure disposed in a rear rocker region, wherein each one of the L-shaped rigid structures comprises a first portion and a second portion that is perpendicularly oriented with respect to the first portion, wherein the stowed position has the second portions of the first and second L-shaped rigid structures lying in the same plane, and wherein in the deployed position the second portions of the first and second L-shaped rigid structures are parallel; a synthetic cable fixedly attached to the second portions of the L-shaped rigid structures, wherein the synthetic cable is made from a plurality of helically braided bundles of fibers selected from a group consisting of aramid fibers and liquid crystal polymer fibers characterized by strain-at-failure exceeding about 3 percent; and a deployment device in operative communication with the first portions so as to selectively project the first portion away from the side of the vehicle, and wherein the second portion is in rotating engagement with the first portion such that the second portion rotates after the first portion is projected away from the vehicle to form a web-like structure from the synthetic cable about an exterior of a side of the motor vehicle body.