Vehicle safety device actuating apparatus with adaptive reference level

Claim 1

A control apparatus for actuating a safety device in a vehicle, said control apparatus comprising: acceleration/deceleration sensing means for sensing the magnitude of acceleration/deceleration of the vehicle and producing an output signal showing this magnitude; signal processing means for integrating the output signal to obtain detected vehicle speed data representing detected vehicle speed; first means responsive to said signal processing means for detecting a value of a positive-going peak in a change in the detected vehicle speed data; reference means for providing a basic reference level data for discrimination of a vehicle collision in the case where the vehicle collides with only an obstacle in front; second means responsive to said first means and said reference means for determining a reference level data for discriminating the occurrence of a vehicle collision by changing the basic reference level data in accordance with the value of the positive-going peak; third means for comparing the detected vehicle speed data with the reference level data to determine whether or not a vehicle collision has occurred; means responsive to said third means for generating an actuating signal when a collision has occurred; an actuator for actuating the vehicle safety device; and, a driving circuit responsive to the actuating signal for causing said actuator to actuate the vehicle safety device.