Patent ID: 7168739

Claim:
A passenger protecting system mounted on an automotive vehicle, the passenger protecting system comprising: a main control unit having a main detecting circuit for detecting types of collision based on signals from main acceleration sensors and a main driving signal generating circuit for generating main driving signals based on signals from the main detecting circuit; a safeguard control unit having a safeguard detecting circuit for detecting types of collision based on signals from safeguard acceleration sensors and a safeguard driving signal generating circuit for generating safeguard driving signals based on signals from the safeguard detecting circuit; a driving integrated circuit having main switching elements driven by the main driving signals and safeguard switching elements driven by the safeguard driving signals; and a plurality of passenger protecting devices mounted on the automotive vehicle to be actuated upon detection of a collision, wherein: some passenger protecting devices are selected from among the plurality of passenger protecting devices according to the types of collision and actuated when both of the main and the safeguard switching elements are driven; and information regarding the passenger protecting devices to be selected according to the types of collision are pre-programmed in the main control unit and the information is transmitted to the safeguard control unit.