Patent ID: 7899595

Claim:
An apparatus for protecting an occupant of a vehicle in a collision, the apparatus comprising: an occupant protection device for protecting the occupant; a sensor module including an acceleration sensor for detecting first acceleration caused by the collision and a processing circuit for producing first data corresponding to the first acceleration; and a control unit including a diagnostic unit for performing a fault diagnosis of the sensor module and for outputting a start signal to the sensor module, the control unit further including a controller for controlling the protection device based on the first data and a result of the fault diagnosis, wherein the sensor module further includes a start circuit for causing the acceleration sensor to detect second acceleration in response to the start signal so that the processing circuit produces second data corresponding to the second acceleration, the sensor module further including an output circuit for outputting a signal having the first data or the second data to the control unit, the output circuit adding a first code to the signal having the second data, and the diagnostic unit determines based on the first code that the signal has the second data and performs the fault diagnosis of the sensor module based on the second data.