Patent Issued for System and method for adjusting an interior configuration of a vehicle in response to a vehicular accident (USPTO 11970089): State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company

2024 MAY 20 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company (Bloomington, Illinois, United States) has been issued patent number 11970089, according to news reporting originating out of Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx editors.

The patent’s inventors are Christensen, Scott T. (Salem, OR, US), Fields, Brian M. (Phoenix, AZ, US), Prevatt, Stephen R. (Normal, IL, US), Roberson, Steve (Normal, IL, US).

This patent was filed on September 21, 2022 and was published online on April 30, 2024.

From the background information supplied by the inventors, news correspondents obtained the following quote: “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.”

Supplementing the background information on this patent, NewsRx reporters 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 configuration of a vehicle following a collision comprises: (1) an interior vehicle component; (2) an actuator component configured to adjust a physical configuration of the interior vehicle component; (3) 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 (4) one or more processors. The one or more processors are configured to: (1) receive sensor data that includes, or is derived from data that includes, the data collected by the one or more sensors; (2) detect, by processing the sensor data, a vehicle accident condition indicative of an accident having occurred; and/or (3) after the one or more processors detect the vehicle accident condition, cause the actuator component to prevent a passenger from adjusting the interior vehicle component outside a predetermined range of physical configurations, while allowing the passenger to adjust the interior vehicle component within the predetermined range of physical configurations.

“In another embodiment, a method for controlling an interior configuration of a vehicle following a collision comprises: (1) receiving, by one or more processors, sensor data that includes, or is derived from data that includes, data collected by one or more sensors; (2) detecting, by the one or more processors processing the sensor data, a vehicle accident condition indicative of an accident having occurred; and/or (3) after detecting the vehicle accident condition, causing, by the one or more processors, an actuator component to prevent a passenger from adjusting an interior vehicle component outside a predetermined range of physical configurations, while allowing the passenger to adjust the interior vehicle component within the predetermined range of physical configurations.

“Advantages will become more apparent to those skilled in the art from the following description of the preferred embodiments which have been shown and described by way of illustration. As will be realized, the present embodiments may be capable of other and different embodiments, and their details are capable of modification in various respects. Accordingly, the drawings and description are to be regarded as illustrative in nature and not as restrictive.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A system for controlling an interior configuration of a vehicle following a collision, the system comprising: an interior vehicle component; an actuator component configured to adjust a physical configuration of the interior vehicle component over a first range of physical configurations; 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, by processing the sensor data, a vehicle accident condition indicative of an accident having occurred, and after the one or more processors detect the vehicle accident condition, cause the actuator component to prevent a passenger from adjusting the interior vehicle component outside a predetermined second range of physical configurations, while allowing the passenger to adjust the interior vehicle component within the predetermined second range of physical configurations, the predetermined second range of physical configurations being a subset of the first range of physical configurations.

“2. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are configured to: detect the vehicle accident condition at least by determining that the vehicle has rolled over, become submerged, is on fire, and/or collided with one or more objects external to the vehicle.

“3. The system of claim 1, wherein the interior vehicle component is a seating apparatus.

“4. The system of claim 1, wherein the interior vehicle component is a window.

“5. The system of claim 4, wherein the one or more processors cause the actuator component to prevent the passenger from adjusting a position of the window below a predetermined lowest position.

“6. The system of claim 1, wherein: the interior vehicle component is a window or a seating apparatus; and the one or more processors are configured to detect the vehicle accident condition at least by determining that the vehicle has become submerged.

“7. A method for controlling an interior configuration of a vehicle following a collision, the method comprising: receiving, by one or more processors, sensor data that includes, or is derived from data that includes, data collected by one or more sensors; detecting, by the one or more processors processing the sensor data, a vehicle accident condition indicative of an accident having occurred; and after detecting the vehicle accident condition, causing, by the one or more processors, an actuator component that is configured to adjust a physical configuration of an interior vehicle component over a first range of physical configurations to prevent a passenger from adjusting the interior vehicle component outside a predetermined second range of physical configurations, while allowing the passenger to adjust the interior vehicle component within the predetermined second range of physical configurations, the predetermined second range of physical configurations being a subset of the first range of physical configurations.

“8. The method of claim 7 wherein detecting the vehicle accident condition includes determining that the vehicle has rolled over, become submerged, is on fire, and/or collided with one or more objects external to the vehicle.

“9. The method of claim 7 wherein the interior vehicle component is a seating apparatus.

“10. The method of claim 7, wherein the interior vehicle component is a window.

“11. The method of claim 10, wherein causing the actuator component to prevent the passenger from adjusting the interior vehicle component outside the predetermined second range of physical configurations includes causing the actuator component to prevent the passenger from adjusting a position of the window below a predetermined lowest position.

“12. The method of claim 7, wherein: the interior vehicle component is a window or a seating apparatus; and detecting the vehicle accident condition includes determining that the vehicle has become submerged.

“13. A non-transitory, computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to: receive sensor data that includes, or is derived from data that includes, data collected by one or more sensors of a vehicle; detect, by processing the sensor data, a vehicle accident condition indicative of an accident having occurred; and after detecting the vehicle accident condition, cause an actuator component that is configured to adjust a physical configuration of an interior vehicle component of the vehicle over a first range of physical configurations to prevent a passenger from adjusting the interior vehicle component outside a predetermined second range of physical configurations, while allowing the passenger to adjust the interior vehicle component within the predetermined second range of physical configurations, the predetermined second range of physical configurations being a subset of the first range of physical configurations.

“14. The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein detecting the vehicle accident condition includes determining that the vehicle has rolled over, become submerged, is on fire, and/or collided with one or more objects external to the vehicle.

“15. The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein the interior vehicle component is a seating apparatus.

“16. The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein the interior vehicle component is a window.

“17. The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein causing the actuator component to prevent the passenger from adjusting the interior vehicle component outside the predetermined second range of physical configurations includes causing the actuator component to prevent the passenger from adjusting a position of the window below a predetermined lowest position.

“18. The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein: the interior vehicle component is a window or a seating apparatus; and detecting the vehicle accident condition includes determining that the vehicle has become submerged.”

For the URL and additional information on this patent, see: Christensen, Scott T. System and method for adjusting an interior configuration of a vehicle in response to a vehicular accident. U.S. Patent Number 11970089, filed September 21, 2022, and published online on April 30, 2024. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(11970089)&db=USPAT&type=ids

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