Patent ID: 7547062

Claim:
A device for a motor vehicle for providing occupant protection during an energy impact directed laterally against a door of the motor vehicle as a result of a collision, comprising a connecting structure including a first part and a second part, the first part being for connection to the door and the second part being for connection to an energy absorbing area of a body of the motor vehicle located in an interior of the motor vehicle and the parts being connectible by at least one section which diverts at least part of the energy impact directed laterally on the door into the energy absorbing area of the body; and wherein at least one of the parts comprises a shape transformable material which, due to an input of energy, changes in shape causing the parts to adjoin and interlock; and wherein the transformable material is made of at least one of: piezo-ceramics, piezo-polymers, electrostrictive ceramics, electrorheological fluids, polymer gels, magnetorheological fluids, shape-memory alloys, shape-memory polymers.