Vehicle safety system and method comprising active and passive safety means

摘要

The present invention relates to a safety system for avoiding or mitigating a collision with other road users. The safety system comprises a monitoring means (1) for monitoring a road for detecting the relative approach of road users to said vehicle and providing a first signal indicative thereof. The safety system also comprises first and second managing means (2, 6) which are operatively connected to the monitoring means (1) and connected in parallel for activating, in response to the first signal, active and passive safety means (4, 8) respectively. Finally, there is also a detecting means (10) for detecting a collision with another road user and providing a second signal indicative thereof. The detecting means (10) is operatively connected to the passive safety means (8) for controlling, by means of the second signal, the activation of the passive safety means. Thus, the present invention optimizes data input for passive safety functions through use of two different managing means which are optimized for passive safety functions and active safety functions respectively, in combination with a detection means to detect collision events.