Vehicle safety device comprises steering wheel with pressure sensor for triggering a warning, and the automatic and progressive stopping of a vehicle in situations when the driver has lost control

摘要

The safety device comprises a multifunctional tachymeter (T.M) equipped with an activation sensor (Z), a multifunctional steering wheel (V.S.M) with a hermetic chamber maintained under a preset pressure. The chamber is positioned inside the steering wheel and has multiple pressure points which are connected to a pressure sensor (X) for detecting variations in the grip of the driver's fingers. The pressure sensor is connected to the tachymeter and a control unit (C.C). The tachymeter interacts with the activation sensor for triggering a series of intervention functions. The system activates six intervention functions (F) in the order; intermittent warning light on the dashboard (F1), acoustic alarm inside the vehicle (F2), additional auxiliary braking system (F3), switching-on of the rear brake lights (F4), by-pass of the fuel distribution (F5) and switching-on of the intermittent hazard-warning lights (F6). The six functions operate in pairs and in three sequences (S) where S1 is F1 and F2, S2 is F3 and F4 and S3 is F5 and F6. A timer (T) in the control unit activates the sequences with different activation times between the sequences depending on the speed of the vehicle. The three speed ranges are 30-60 km/h (V1), 61-85 km/h (V2) and above 86 km/h (V3) and the activation times are 5 seconds (T1), 4 seconds (T2), three seconds (T3) and two seconds (T4).