Patent Issued for System and method for adjusting an interior configuration of a vehicle in response to a vehicular accident (USPTO 11485254): State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company

2022 NOV 18 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- According to news reporting originating from Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx journalists, a patent by the inventors Christensen, Scott T. (Salem, OR, US), Fields, Brian M. (Normal, IL, US), Prevatt, Stephen R. (Normal, IL, US), Roberson, Steve (Normal, IL, US), filed on April 9, 2018, was published online on November 1, 2022.

The assignee for this patent, patent number 11485254, is State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company (Bloomington, Illinois, United States).

Reporters obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “The interior configuration and layout of a vehicle has changed only incrementally since the invention of automobiles over a century ago. Conventional interior vehicle configurations were adapted so that a human could effectively, safely, and manually operate a vehicle. Accordingly, existing interior vehicle configurations are confined to certain layouts to accommodate these requirements. For instance, space in the vehicle must be devoted to the steering wheel, brake, accelerator, and gear shifter, and the driver must be positioned to accessibly operate this equipment while having a clear view of the road and traffic in all directions. Additionally, user interface control panels must also be arranged to conform to this layout. In existing vehicles, a vehicle operator has no way to adjust his/her physical position without abandoning the vehicle controls, thereby increasing the likelihood of an accident. Therefore, a driver and/or passenger is seemingly limited to a certain position regardless of driving conditions and/or the vehicle’s actions, which in turn can place detrimental force and strain on a vehicle driver and/or passenger’s body.

“Existing vehicle safety technology has been limited in form and/or function in order to also conform to existing configurations. Each year millions of individuals are injured as a result of vehicular accidents emanating from operator error, inattention, inexperience, misuse, or distraction; inclement weather conditions; treacherous road conditions; and other driving environment conditions. While existing vehicle safety technologies have improved vehicle driver and passenger safety, many of these technologies, such as airbags, do not deploy until after a vehicle has already been involved in a collision. Similarly, other existing vehicle safety technologies, such as seatbelts, can only perform a single function and provide limited or no benefit in certain situations. In some instances, the existing safety technology installed in a vehicle can cause more harm than it prevents because of the specific type of accident and/or the physical attributes of the vehicle’s passenger. A passenger’s specific body position during a collision can affect how his/her body is impacted by the collision, and just a few inches or degrees of difference in body positioning can be the difference between a passenger walking away from a collision alive and unscathed, as opposed to suffering life-altering injuries or death. However, given the near-instantaneous nature of most accidents, it is almost impossible for a driver or passenger to brace for impact or make changes to his/her position to prevent injury.

“After the collision occurs, a new set of problems arises. In some instances, the accident is so severe that an individual is incapacitated and/or trapped in the vehicle, and thus cannot safely exit the vehicle. While emergency personnel, such as first responders, may be able to extract an individual from the vehicle, the process can be time and labor intensive. Additionally, extracting an individual from a vehicle typically requires special equipment that not all emergency personnel possess, such as “the jaws of life” or underwater breathing equipment. Accident-induced injuries can be exacerbated and lives lost because emergency personnel were unable to extract an individual fast enough. For example, if a vehicle has become submerged and is sinking, and if emergency personnel cannot overcome the physical obstacles, it may not be possible to administer medical attention to an incapacitated vehicle passenger in a timely manner. In such an instance, breaking a conventional window or opening a door, in order to get to the injured/trapped individual, is substantially more difficult than when the vehicle is on land because of the additional pressure forces caused by the water. Conversely, in a rollover crash, emergency personnel may be faced with obstacles, like trying to saw through the structural base of the car and/or removing a multitude of large and heavy vehicle parts (e.g., doors, windows, seat, seatbelts, etc.), in order to free the incapacitated/trapped passenger.

“While racing against the clock to extract a passenger, emergency personnel are typically unaware of an individual’s exact injuries. The lack of knowledge about an individual’s injuries and/or pre-existing conditions can lead to emergency personnel further exacerbating the accident-induced injury, aggravating a pre-crash existing condition, and/or causing additional injuries if the individual is not extracted in a specific manner. For example, an individual who suffers a spinal injury in a collision may need to be immobilized and removed in a specific manner in order to prevent further injury to his/her spine. However, without knowledge of the injury, emergency personnel cannot carry out the necessary specialized extraction procedures, and thus risk causing further injury to the individual.

“The increase in autonomous and semi-autonomous vehicles has decreased the need for vehicles to be operated by humans. Autonomous and semi-autonomous vehicles augment vehicle operators’ information or replace vehicle operators’ control commands to operate the vehicle, in whole or part, with computer systems based upon information collected by equipment within, or attached to, the vehicle. Consequently, there is a decreased need for vehicles to be confined to features and configurations, such as the interior layout, specifically designed to accommodate human-operated vehicles.”

In addition to obtaining background information on this patent, NewsRx editors also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “The present application disclosure provides a system and method for modifying the physical configuration of an interior component of a vehicle in response to detecting a vehicle accident condition indicative of the vehicle being involved in an accident.

“In one embodiment, a system for controlling an interior vehicle configuration of a vehicle includes an interior vehicle component, an actuator component configured to adjust a physical configuration of the interior vehicle component, and one or more sensors configured to collect data corresponding to a state of the vehicle, an action of the vehicle, and/or an internal or external environment of the vehicle. The system also includes one or more processors configured to receive sensor data. The sensor data includes, or is derived from data that includes, the data collected by the one or more sensors. The one or more processors are also configured to detect, by processing the sensor data, whether the vehicle has been in an accident, and, when the one or more processors detect the vehicle has been in an accident, cause the actuator component to adjust the interior vehicle component from a first physical configuration to a second physical configuration.

“In one embodiment, a method for controlling an interior vehicle configuration of a vehicle comprises receiving, via one or more processors, sensor data that is generated by, or derived from data generated by, one or more sensors configured to collect data corresponding to a state of the vehicle, an action of the vehicle, and/or an internal or external environment of the vehicle; detecting, via the one or more processors, whether a vehicle has been in an accident based on the received sensor data; and causing, via an actuator component, an interior vehicle component to adjust from a first physical configuration to a second physical configuration when the one or more processors detect the vehicle has been in an accident.

“In one embodiment, a system for controlling an interior vehicle configuration of a vehicle includes an interior vehicle component, an actuator component configured to adjust a physical configuration of the interior vehicle component, and one or more sensors configured to collect data corresponding to a state of the vehicle, an action of the vehicle, and/or an internal or external environment of the vehicle. The system also includes one or more processors configured to receive sensor data. The sensor data includes, or is derived from data that includes, the data collected by the one or more sensors. The one or more processors are also configured to detect, by processing the sensor data, whether the vehicle has been in an accident, and, when the one or more processors detect the vehicle has been in an accident, cause the actuator component to restrict movement of the interior vehicle component to a predetermined range of physical configurations.

“In one embodiment, a method for controlling an interior vehicle configuration of a vehicle comprises receiving, via one or more processors, sensor data; detecting, via the one or more processors, whether a vehicle has been in an accident based on the received sensor data; and causing, via an actuator component, an interior vehicle component to restrict movement of the interior vehicle component to a predetermined range of physical configurations when the one or more processors detect the vehicle has been in an accident.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A system for controlling an interior configuration of a vehicle following an accident, the system comprising: a first interior vehicle component; a first actuator component configured to adjust a physical configuration of the first interior vehicle component; a second interior vehicle component; a second actuator component configured to adjust a physical configuration of the second interior vehicle component; one or more sensors configured to collect data corresponding to a state of the vehicle, an action of the vehicle, and/or an internal or external environment of the vehicle; and one or more processors configured to: receive sensor data that includes, or is derived from data that includes, the data collected by the one or more sensors, detect a post vehicle accident condition based upon the sensor data, detect the internal environment and the external environment based upon the sensor data, determine, based upon the sensor data, the internal environment and the external environment, a first post-accident physical configuration for the first interior vehicle component, wherein the first vehicle interior vehicle component, when in the first post-accident physical configuration, at least temporarily restricts a first exit from the vehicle; determine, based upon the sensor data, the internal environment and the external environment, a second post-accident physical configuration for the second interior vehicle component that enables a second exit from the vehicle as an alternative exit to the restricted first exit, control the first actuator component to adjust the first interior vehicle component from a first current physical configuration to the first post-accident physical configuration, and control, while the first vehicle interior vehicle component is in the first post-accident physical configuration and restricts the first exit, the second actuator component to adjust the second interior vehicle component from a second current physical configuration to the second post-accident physical configuration to enable the second exit from the vehicle as an alternative exit to the restricted first exit.

“2. The system of claim 1, wherein the first actuator component is configured to adjust an orientation of the first interior vehicle component from the first current physical configuration to the first post-accident physical configuration at least by adjusting a yaw angle, a pitch angle, and/or a roll angle of the first interior vehicle component.

“3. The system of claim 1, wherein the first actuator component is configured to adjust the first interior vehicle component from the first current physical configuration to the first post-accident physical configuration at least by moving the first interior vehicle component in a forward, backward, upward, downward, clockwise, counterclockwise, and/or lateral direction relative to the vehicle.

“4. The system of claim 1, further comprising: one or more additional sensors configured to collect data corresponding to one or more passengers traveling in the vehicle; and wherein the one or more processors are configured to: receive passenger data that is generated by, or is derived from data generated by, the one or more interior data collection components; and determine, by processing the passenger data, the first post-accident physical configuration of the first interior vehicle component.

“5. A method for controlling an interior configuration of a vehicle following a collision, the method comprising: receiving, via one or more processors, sensor data that is generated by, or derived from data generated by, one or more sensors configured to collect data corresponding to a state of the vehicle, an action of the vehicle, and/or an internal or external environment of the vehicle; detecting, by processing the sensor data using the one or more processors, a post vehicle accident condition based upon the sensor data; detecting the internal environment and the external environment based upon the sensor data; determining, based upon the sensor data, the internal environment and the external environment, a first post-accident physical configuration for a first interior vehicle component, wherein the first vehicle interior vehicle component, when in the first post-accident physical configuration, at least temporarily restricts a movement of the first interior vehicle component to restrict a first exit from the vehicle; determining, based upon the sensor data, the internal environment and the external environment, a second post-accident physical configuration for a second interior vehicle component to enable a second exit from the vehicle as an alternative exit to the restricted first exit; causing, via a first actuator component, the first interior vehicle component to adjust from a first current physical configuration to the first post-accident physical configuration; and causing, while the first vehicle interior vehicle component is in the first post-accident physical configuration and restricts the first exit and via a second actuator component, the second interior vehicle component to adjust from a second current physical configuration to the second post-accident physical configuration to enable the second exit from the vehicle as an alternative exit to the restricted first exit.

“6. The method of claim 5, wherein the first actuator component is configured to adjust an orientation of the first interior vehicle component from the first current physical configuration to the first post-accident physical configuration at least by adjusting a yaw angle, a pitch angle, and/or a roll angle of the first interior vehicle component.

“7. The method of claim 5, wherein the first actuator component is configured to adjust the first interior vehicle component from the first current physical configuration to the first post-accident physical configuration at least by moving the first interior vehicle component in a forward, backward, upward, downward, clockwise, counterclockwise, and/or lateral direction relative to the vehicle.

“8. The method of claim 5, further comprising: receiving, via the one or more processors, passenger data that is generated by, or derived from data generated by, one or more additional sensors configured to collect data corresponding to one or more passengers traveling in the vehicle; and determining, by processing the passenger data using the one or more processors, the first post-accident physical configuration of the first interior vehicle component.

“9. A system for controlling an interior configuration of a vehicle following a collision, the system comprising: a first interior vehicle component; a first actuator component configured to adjust a physical configuration of the first interior vehicle component; a second interior vehicle component; a second actuator component configured to adjust a physical configuration of the second interior vehicle component; one or more sensors configured to collect data corresponding to a state of the vehicle, an action of the vehicle, and/or an internal or external environment of the vehicle; and one or more processors configured to: receive sensor data that includes, or is derived from data that includes, the data collected by the one or more sensors, detect a post vehicle accident condition based upon the sensor data, detect the internal environment and the external environment based upon the sensor data, determine, based upon the sensor data, the internal environment and the external environment, a first post-accident physical configuration for the first interior vehicle component, wherein the first vehicle interior vehicle component, when in the first post-accident physical configuration, at least temporarily restricts a movement of the first interior vehicle component to restrict a first exit from the vehicle, determine, based upon the sensor data, the internal environment and the external environment, a second post-accident physical configuration for the second interior vehicle component that enables a second exit from the vehicle as an alternative exit to the restricted first exit, cause the first actuator component to move the first interior vehicle component from a first current physical configuration to the first post-accident physical configuration, and cause, while the first vehicle interior vehicle component is in the first post-accident physical configuration and restricts the first exit, the second actuator component to move the second interior vehicle component from a second current physical configuration to the second post-accident physical configuration to enable the second exit from the vehicle as an alternative exit to the restricted first exit.

“10. The system of claim 9, wherein the first actuator component is configured to restrict an orientation of the first interior vehicle component to a predetermined range of physical configurations at least by restricting an adjustment of at least one of a yaw, pitch, or roll angle of the first interior vehicle component.

“11. The system of claim 9, wherein the first actuator component is configured to restrict the first interior vehicle component, or a portion of the first interior vehicle component, from moving, in its entirety, beyond a predetermined range in at least one of a forward, backward, upward, downward, clockwise, counterclockwise, or lateral direction relative to the vehicle.”

For more information, see this patent: Christensen, Scott T. System and method for adjusting an interior configuration of a vehicle in response to a vehicular accident. U.S. Patent Number 11485254, filed April 9, 2018, and published online on November 1, 2022. Patent URL: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=11485254.PN.&OS=PN/11485254RS=PN/11485254

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