[Monitor] vehicle hazard detection and warning system

• US 10,081,343 B2
• Filed: 02/13/2018
• Issued: 09/25/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 12/29/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Thunder Power New Energy Vehicle Development Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Thunder Power New Energy Vehicle Development Company Limited
• Inventors: Dai, Yu-Ting
• Primary Examiner(s): Swarthout, Brent
• Application Number:
  US15/895,729
• Publication Number:
  US 20180178770A1
• Time in Patent Office: 224 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: B60T 2210/36 Global Positioning System [GPS]
• CPC Class Codes: B60T 7/16 operated by remote control, i.e. initiating means not mounted on vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: B60T 8/171 Detecting parameters used in the regulation; Measuring values used in the regulation
• CPC Class Codes: B60T 8/17551 determining control parameters related to vehicle stability used in the regulation, e.g. by calculations involving measured or detected parameters
• CPC Class Codes: B60T 8/17558 specially adapted for collision avoidance or collision mitigation road vehicle drive control systems for collision avoidance otherwise than by controlling a particular sub-unit B60W30/09
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2420/403 Image sensing, e.g. optical camera
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2420/42 Image sensing, e.g. optical camera
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2520/105 Longitudinal acceleration
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2554/80 Spatial relation or speed relative to objects
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2556/45 External transmission of data to or from the vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2556/50 of positioning data, e.g. GPS [Global Positioning System] data
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/0956 the prediction being responsive to traffic or environmental parameters
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 50/14 Means for informing the driver, warning the driver or prompting a driver intervention
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0112 from the vehicle, e.g. floating car data [FCD]
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096716 where the received information does not generate an automatic action on the vehicle control
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096741 where the source of the transmitted information selects which information to transmit to each vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096775 where the origin of the information is a central station
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/3822 specially adapted for use in vehicles H04B1/3827 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/724098 Interfacing with an on-board device of a vehicle for hands-free speaking in vehicles H04M1/6075
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/027 using movement velocity, acceleration information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 : Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/40 : for vehicles, e.g. vehicle-to-pedestrians [V2P]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/44 : for communication between vehicles and infrastructures, e.g. vehicle-to-cloud [V2C] or vehicle-to-home [V2H]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/70 : Services for machine-to-machine communication [M2M] or machine type communication [MTC]

Abstract

Described herein is a vehicle system configured to identify and mitigate a risk associated with one or more hazards that may impact a vehicle. The vehicle system may include a service provider computer configured to maintain information related to one or more hazards. In some embodiments, a hazard may be identified based at least in part on its being located within the vicinity of a vehicle. In some embodiments, the service provider computer may generate a mitigation strategy to reduce or eliminate the risk posed by the identified hazard. The mitigation strategy may include one or more actions to be taken by a processor device within the vehicle. Upon being provided with a mitigation strategy, the processor device may execute one or more of the actions in the mitigation strategy without human interaction.

Claims

1. A vehicle, comprising:

one or more input sensors; and

a processor device configured to;

receive input from the one or more input sensors;

obtain, from a service provider computer remote from the vehicle, a selected mitigation strategy based at least in part on an identification of at least one hazard in the vicinity of the vehicle responsive to the input,

the selected mitigation strategy being one of a plurality of different mitigation strategies generated by the service provider computer in association with the at least one hazard and selected for communication to the vehicle according to at least one vehicle specific variable,

the selected mitigation strategy including instructions to perform a plurality of actions comprising at least a first action and a second action, each of which is calculated to reduce a risk associated with the at least one hazard,

wherein the first action comprises an action to provide a notification to a driver and the second action comprises an action automatically to control the vehicle in accordance with the vehicle specific variable;

execute the first action; and

upon determining that the first action was ineffective, execute the second action.

2. The vehicle of claim 1, further comprising an output device, wherein the processor device is further configured to provide the notification to the driver via the output device.

3. The vehicle of claim 1, wherein the one or more input sensors includes a global positioning system device.

4. The vehicle of claim 1, wherein the one or more input sensors comprise a camera.

5. The vehicle of claim 1, wherein the one or more input sensors comprise at least one of a speedometer or an accelerometer.

6. The vehicle of claim 1, wherein the one or more input sensors comprise a plurality of input sensors.

7. The vehicle of claim 1, wherein the processor device is further configured to:

receive information associated with a second vehicle, the information including location information related to the second vehicle; and

identify the at least one hazard, based at least in part on the information associated with the second vehicle.

8. The vehicle of claim 1, wherein the vicinity of the vehicle is a predetermined distance from the vehicle.

9. The vehicle of claim 1, wherein the vicinity of the vehicle is a distance calculated based on the speed of the vehicle.

28. The vehicle of claim 1, wherein the action automatically to control the vehicle in accordance with the at least one vehicle specific variable comprises increasing a brake sensitivity of the vehicle.

29. The vehicle of claim 1, wherein the action automatically to control the vehicle in accordance with the at least one vehicle specific variable comprises activating an electronic stability control (ESC) system of the vehicle.

30. The vehicle of claim 1, wherein the at least one vehicle specific variable indicates a tire tread depth of the vehicle.

10. A method comprising:

receiving, at a computer system and from one or more sensors of each of a plurality of vehicles, a respective input relating to each respective vehicle of the plurality of vehicles;

identifying at least one hazard in the vicinity of the plurality of vehicles;

generating, with the computer system for each respective vehicle responsive to the identifying, a respective mitigation strategy based at least in part on the respective input and one or more respective vehicle specific variables, the respective mitigation strategy including instructions to perform a plurality of actions comprising at least a respective first action and a respective second action, each of which is calculated to reduce a risk associated with the at least one hazard,

wherein, for each respective mitigation strategy, the respective first action comprises an action to provide a notification to a driver of the respective vehicle, and the respective second action comprises an action automatically to control the respective vehicle in accordance with the respective vehicle specific variables;

directing executing the respective first action by each of the plurality of vehicles; and

directing executing the respective second action by at least one of the plurality of vehicles responsive to determining that the first action was ineffective for the at least one of the plurality of vehicles.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the vehicle comprises an output device, the method further comprising providing the notification to the driver via an output device.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the one or more input sensors includes a global positioning system device.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the one or more input sensors comprise a camera.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the one or more input sensors comprise at least one of a speedometer or an accelerometer.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein the one or more input sensors comprise a plurality of input sensors.

16. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

receiving information associated with a second vehicle, the information including location information related to the second vehicle; and

identifying the at least one hazard, based at least in part on the information associated with the second vehicle.

17. The method of claim 10, wherein the vicinity of the vehicle is a predetermined distance from the vehicle.

18. The method of claim 10, wherein the vicinity of the vehicle is a distance calculated based on the speed of the vehicle.

19. A computer system;

comprising

a processor; and

a non-transitory computer readable medium having encoded thereon instructions executable by the processor to;

receive, from one or more input sensors of each of a plurality of vehicles, a respective input relating to each respective vehicle of the plurality of vehicles;

identify at least one hazard in the vicinity of the plurality of vehicles;

generate, for each respective vehicle responsive to identifying the at least one hazard, a respective mitigation strategy based at least in part on the respective input and based at least in part on one or more respective vehicle specific variables, the respective mitigation strategy including instructions to perform a plurality of actions comprising at least a respective first action and a respective second action, each of which is calculated to reduce a risk associated with the at least one hazard,

wherein, for each respective mitigation strategy, the respective first action comprises an action to provide a notification to a driver of the respective vehicle, and the respective second action comprises an action automatically to control the respective vehicle in accordance with the respective vehicle specific variables;

direct execution of the respective first action by each of the plurality of vehicles; and

direct execution of the respective second action by at least one of the plurality of vehicles responsive to determining that the first action was ineffective for the at least one of the plurality of vehicles.

20. The computer system of claim 19, wherein the set of instructions are further executable by the processor to provide the notification to the driver via an output device in the vehicle.

21. The computer system of claim 19, wherein the one or more input sensors includes a global positioning system device.

22. The computer system of claim 19, wherein the one or more input sensors comprise a camera.

23. The computer system of claim 19, wherein the one or more input sensors comprise at least one of a speedometer or an accelerometer.

24. The computer system of claim 19, wherein the one or more input sensors comprise a plurality of input sensors.

25. The computer system of claim 19, wherein the instructions are further executable to:

receive information associated with a second vehicle, the information including location information related to the second vehicle; and

identify the at least one hazard, based at least in part on the information associated with the second vehicle.

26. The computer system of claim 19, wherein the vicinity of the vehicle is a predetermined distance from the vehicle.

27. The computer system of claim 19, wherein the vicinity of the vehicle is a distance calculated based on the speed of the vehicle.