AUTOMATIC FOLDING ARMREST FOR SLIDING VEHICLE DOOR

摘要

A vehicle sliding door (10) is movable in forward and rearward directions between opened and closed positions with respect to a vehicle body. The rear door has a cavity (18) formed therein. An armrest (20) is pivotally movable about a pivot axis (22) between a horizontal position for use as an armrest and a vertical position for storage within the cavity. The pivot axis is substantially parallel to the forward and rearward directions. The armrest includes an actuator for automatically moving the armrest between the vertical and horizontal positions as the door moves between the opened and closed positions, respectively. The actuator may comprise a pneumatic drive system, a flexible drive cable or an electric motor for automatically pivoting the armrest between stowed and use positions.