Patent ID: 8612097

Claim:
A method of deploying a side impact airbag of a vehicle, comprising: at least one airbag that is disposed between a first occupant seating position of a first side of the vehicle and a second occupant seating position of a second side of the vehicle; and selectively determining a delay time based on an impact type, a suppression determination, and a determination of occupied seats in a vehicle, where the delay time associated with an impact on a first side of the vehicle is different than the delay time associated with an impact on a second side of the vehicle; and selectively generating a control signal via a control module having a processor to at least one of deploy and not deploy the side impact airbag based on the delay time and said deployment of said airbag is responsive to said delay time for each side of the vehicle so that deployment time of said airbag on the first side of the vehicle is different than deployment time of said airbag on the second side of the vehicle.