SEAT BELT STATUS DETERMINING SYSTEM AND METHOD

A seat belt status determining system and method for a vehicle that evaluate a seat belt and determine if it is buckled and if it is properly routed on a passenger. In order to evaluate the seat belt status, the system and method use seat belt sensors and cameras inside the vehicle cabin to generate data that is then analyzed in conjunction with machine learning techniques (e.g., supervised machine learning techniques implemented through the use of neural networks) to classify the seat belt status into one or more categories, such as: passenger not present, passenger present/seat belt not being worn, passenger present/seat belt being worn improperly, passenger present/seat belt being worn properly, and blocked view.