Patent ID: 7610127

Claim:
A method for determining vehicle stability, comprising: generating a steering wheel angle value associated with a vehicle, utilizing a steering wheel angle sensor; generating a lateral acceleration value associated with the vehicle, utilizing a lateral acceleration sensor; generating a yaw rate value associated with the vehicle, utilizing a yaw rate sensor; determining a first vector having the steering wheel angle value, the lateral acceleration value, and the yaw rate value, utilizing a computer communicating with the steering wheel angle sensor, the lateral acceleration sensor, and the yaw rate sensor; determining a normalized data vector based on the steering wheel angle value, the lateral acceleration value, and the yaw rate value, in the first vector, utilizing the computer; determining a first Mahalanobis distance value based on the normalized data vector and a correlation matrix, utilizing the computer; generating a first signal to induce a first output device to output a first light indicating a stable vehicle stability condition when the first Mahalanobis distance value is less than or equal to a threshold value, utilizing the computer; and generating a second signal to induce a second output device to output a second light indicating an unstable vehicle stability condition when the first Mahalanobis distance value is greater than the threshold value, utilizing the computer.