Patent ID: 7765065

Claim:
A method of manipulating at least one parameter of a vehicle to optimize vehicle occupant safety, the method comprising: monitoring a vicinity of the vehicle for occurrence of at least one relevant event, wherein the at least one relevant event includes detection of at least one of another vehicle, a person outside the vehicle and an object in the vicinity of the vehicle; monitoring a vehicle interior for an actual position of at least one person inside the vehicle; supplying signals corresponding to one of the at least one relevant event and the actual position to an evaluation unit upon occurrence of the at least one relevant event and on detecting the actual position; and activating, based on an evaluation output of the evaluation unit, an active safety system and a passive safety system of the vehicle as a function of the at least one relevant event and the actual position; wherein kinematics of the at least one of another vehicle, the person outside the vehicle, and the object detected in the vicinity of the vehicle is predicted and kinematics of the at least one person inside the vehicle is predicted, and wherein the predicted kinematics of the at least one of another vehicle, the person outside the vehicle and the object in the vicinity of the vehicle and the predicted kinematics of the at least one person inside the vehicle are considered by the evaluation unit in generating the evaluation output.