Patent ID: 7976060

Claim:
A vehicle including a floor at least in part defining a passenger compartment of the vehicle, comprising: a seat having a bottom portion and a back portion coupled at an angle to a rear portion of said bottom portion, said seat being adapted to support an occupant; a support structure adapted to support said seat on the floor, said support structure comprising a track coupled to the floor engaged with a slide mechanism configured to slide with respect to said track to enable said seat to move relative to the floor, further comprising a support member coupled to said slide mechanism and to a bottom portion of said seat; an occupant sensor system that obtains an indication of weight applied by the occupant to the seat and a position of the occupant, said occupant sensor system including a force measuring device attached to said support member for measuring force in said support member indicative of weight applied by the occupant to said seat; an occupant classification system that determines an occupant classification based on the occupant weight and the occupant position as provided by said occupant sensor system; an airbag positioned to deploy to provide protection to the occupant of said seat in a crash involving the vehicle; a crash sensor that detects when the vehicle has become involved in or is about to become involved in a crash; and a controller that determines that the crash detected by said crash sensor requires deployment of said airbag and controls deployment of said airbag based on the occupant classification determined by said occupant classification system.