Modern motor vehicles commonly feature occupant safety systems including, for example, seat belts, frontal collision airbags, side airbags, and curtain airbags. One or more sensors on-board the vehicle feed signals to an electronic control module which, based on the signals, detects a collision or other unsafe condition so that restraints and/or other safety systems may be activated.
A typical passenger vehicle has two rows of seats for the driver and passengers, and such vehicles often are equipped with a side impact sensor located in, on, or adjacent to the door or sidewall of the vehicle on either side of each seating row, for a total of four sensors (two on each side of the vehicle). The side impact sensors are typically accelerometers or pressure sensors. Such a sensor suite is effective for sensing lateral collisions or impacts that occur on the sides of the seating rows.
Extending this concept to larger vehicles that may have three or more passenger seating rows would require six or more total side impact sensors.