Patent ID: 7819421

Claim:
A side airbag apparatus mounted in a vehicle, comprising an airbag that protects a passenger seated on a seat in a passenger compartment in a collision of the vehicle by being inflated and deployed at a side wall portion of the passenger compartment corresponding to the seat, wherein, if a body size of the passenger is smaller than a predetermined size, inflation and deployment of the airbag are controlled in such a manner that the airbag in a inflated and deployed state has a great thickness in a lateral direction of the vehicle compared to a case in which the body size of the passenger is greater than or equal to the predetermined size wherein the airbag is an airbag assembly including a main airbag and an auxiliary airbag that inflate and deploy in a state arranged along the lateral direction of the vehicle, wherein the main airbag is inflated and deployed and the auxiliary airbag is not inflated or deployed if the body size of the passenger is greater than or equal to the predetermined size, and wherein the main airbag and the auxiliary airbag are both inflated and deployed if the body size of the passenger is smaller than the predetermined size.