Patent ID: 8332101

Claim:
A vehicle comprising: a frame; a locomotion source supported to the frame for use in providing locomotion for the vehicle; a passenger door supported to the frame for access to a portion of an interior of the vehicle, the passenger door having a locked condition for prohibiting the passenger door from opening and an unlocked condition for allowing the passenger door to open; a wheel supported to the frame; a seat supported to the frame; a transmission supported to the frame for operatively connecting the locomotion source to the wheel, the transmission comprising: a park condition for maintaining the wheel in a parked condition; and, a moving condition; an occupant detection system mounted to the frame for determining whether the seat adjacent the passenger door is occupied; and, a passenger door unlocking system comprising: a control unit mounted to the frame having an integrated circuit which selectively unlocks the passenger door, the control unit for selectively unlocking the passenger door comprising: an input which receives a signal from the occupant detection system when the transmission is shifted from the park condition; a logic unit which determines whether to send an unlock signal to the passenger door based upon the input; and, an output which selectively sends the unlock signal to the passenger door when the transmission is changed from the moving condition to the park condition; wherein the logic unit determines to engage the output and sends the unlock signal to the passenger door only if the input has received the signal that corresponds to the seat being occupied from the occupant detect system when the transmission was shifted from the park condition.