Patent ID: 7222879

Claim:
A seating condition detecting system comprising: a right front load sensor for detecting a load to which a right front elastic body that supports a right front part of a seat from underneath is subjected; a left front load sensor for detecting a load to which a left front elastic body that supports a left front part of the seat from underneath is subjected; a right rear load sensor for detecting a load to which a right rear elastic body that supports a right rear part of the seat from underneath is subjected; a left rear load sensor for detecting a load to which a left rear elastic body that supports a left rear part of the seat from underneath is subjected; a seating condition detecting means for detecting a seating condition of a vehicle occupant based on the loads detected by the load sensors; and self-diagnostic means for determining an abnormal operation in the seating condition detection based on calculated differences between detected loads of predetermined sensor pairs, the self-diagnostic means including: means for calculating differences between the detected right front load and the detected left front load, and between the detected right rear load and the detected left rear load, both indicating seating position of the vehicular occupant either rightward or leftward, and for determining whether the differences contradict each other, or means for calculating differences between the detected right front load and the detected right rear load, and between the detected left front load and the detected left rear load, both indicating seating position of the vehicular occupant either forward or backward, and for determining whether the differences contradict each other.