Patent attributes
A system (10) for helping to protect an occupant of a vehicle (12) includes a vehicle occupant protection device (20). An event sensor (14) is operative to sense a vehicle event condition such as a vehicle crash or rollover and provides a vehicle event condition signal (22) indicative of the sensed vehicle condition. A vehicle operating condition sensor (18) senses vehicle operation conditions such as ignition starts, vehicle speed, etc. A controller (16) is operative to determine the occurrence of a vehicle event in response to the vehicle condition signal (22). The controller (16) is operative to provide an actuation signal (24) for actuating the vehicle occupant protection device (20) in response to determining the occurrence of the vehicle event. A software key (100) is provided having a disable mode (106) in which the controller (16) is inhibited from providing the actuation signal (24). The software key is responsive to the signals from the vehicle operating sensors (18).
