Patent ID: 6918458

Claim:
A method of managing the enablement and disablement of occupant restraints in a motor vehicle, said method comprising: (a) determining if a seat belt of a seat is buckled or unbuckled; (b) determining if a weight in the seat is less then a threshold weight or is equal to or greater than the threshold weight: (c) in response to the determination of steps (a) and (b), enabling at least one occupant restraint of the group that consists of an automatic locking restraint, a pre-tensioner and an air bag, (d) if the seat belt is buckled and the weight in the seat is less than threshold weight, disabling the air bag and activating the automatic locking restraint upon sensing a high g event, and activating the pre-tensioner after activating the automatic locking restraint; (e) if the seat belt is unbuckled and the weight in the seat is less than the threshold weight, disabling the air bag and the pre-tensioner; (f) if the seat belt is unbuckled and the weight in the seat is equal to or greater than the threshold weight, disabling the pre-tensioner and activating air bag upon sensing a high g event; and (g) if the seat belt is buckled and the weight in the seat is equal to or greater than the threshold weight, activating the automatic locking restraint upon sensing a high g event, activating the pre-tensioner after activating the automatic locking restraint, and activating the air bag after activating the pre-tensioner.