ADAS & Autonomous Vehicle Engineering - January 2023 - 11

UX/HMI
"
As long as AVs have to share the road with non-autonomous vehicles,
there will be seatbelts.
"
Joyson envisions motorized seatbelt retractors as central
to ensuring occupants are properly restrained in unconventional
seating arrangements.
media and electronics among other automotive technologies,
in early 2021 displayed both breath- and
touch-based impairment-detection systems. Michael
Franchy, director of North American Mobility at Asahi
Kasei America, told SAE Media that the company was
collaborating with the Virginia-based Driver Alcohol
Detection System for Safety (DADSS) research
program. Volvo, on its 2024 EX90, is among the first
OEMs to deploy cabin sensors to monitor potential
driver intoxication.
Best seats in the house
Flexible and adaptable seating arrangements are
another cabin innovation set to gain momentum, said
Informa Tech's Winter. At first, new seating arrangements
and designs " probably will be for commercial-type
applications, " he noted, such as shuttles
(driven or driverless) and robotaxis.
The challenge, Joyson engineers explained, is to
ensure the same or better levels of occupant safety than
regulated today. The company is developing a spectrum
of solutions for what it also sees as an inevitable trend.
These include its Belt Attached Restrain Supplement
(BARS), a seatbelt-mounted, head and torso cocooning
airbag designed specifically for " new interior concepts "
with non-traditional seating possibilities. The BARS
Head and torso protection from Joyson's BARS belt-integrated airbag.
airbag, working in conjunction with the company's
new digital motorized seatbelt (DMS), is intended to
protect occupants not only in an unconventionally
placed seat, but also if in a deeply reclined posture,
the engineers noted.
This BARS airbag and DMS seatbelt ideally
would be adaptively deployed according to what a
cabin-monitoring system indicated about all occupants'
positioning. Joyson's Len Cech stressed that
this safety hardware, however, requires crash-testing
regulations that address freedom-of-position seating.
Informa Tech's Winter said flexible seating is
one of three or four AV-inspired cabin features that's
definitely on the horizon. But none of it will happen
without the appropriate safety enablers. " Cars are
always going to have seatbelts, " he insisted. " As long
as AVs have to share the road with non-autonomous
vehicles, there will be seatbelts. "
Screening for safety
For those who believe display screens have taken
over our lives, there's bad news: expect more of them.
Measurement soon may come by the square foot.
And expanding assisted-driving capabilities will offer
more likelihood for all occupants to be engaged with
in-cabin displays.
ADAS & AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE ENGINEERING
January 2023 11
Joyson
Joyson
ADAS & Autonomous Vehicle Engineering - January 2023

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