In-vehicle tutorial

• US 10,096,263 B2
• Filed: 09/02/2015
• Issued: 10/09/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 09/02/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Inventors: Jain, Jinesh J, Levine, Daniel, Han, Kyu Jeong, Puskorius, Gintaras Vincent
• Primary Examiner(s): Bullington, Robert P
• Application Number:
  US14/843,471
• Publication Number:
  US 20170061826A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,133 Days
• Field of Search: 434 66
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 19/167 Control of land vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 5/06 with both visual and audible presentation of the material to be studied

Abstract

Methods, devices, and systems pertaining to in-vehicle tutorials are described. A method may involve receiving a request for an in-vehicle tutorial of an operational feature of a vehicle from a user and simulating expected driving behavior corresponding to the operational feature in the vehicle. The method may further include monitoring operational behavior of the user, comparing the operational behavior with the expected driving behavior, and providing a feedback to the user based on the comparison.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving, by one or more processors, a request for an in-vehicle tutorial of an operational feature of a vehicle from a user;

simulating, by the one or more processors, an expected driving behavior corresponding to the operational feature of the vehicle by controlling a multimedia user interface of the vehicle to perform a plurality of operations comprising;

vibrating a steering wheel or another component of the vehicle;

activating one or more lights of the vehicle; and

engaging in a dialogue with the user using speech recognition and machine learning;

monitoring an operational behavior of the user by communicating with a plurality of sensors of the vehicle that sense various parameters of the vehicle to collect sensor data from the plurality of sensors;

comparing, by the one or more processors, the operational behavior with the expected driving behavior; and

providing a feedback to the user based on the comparing.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the simulating the expected driving behavior corresponding to the operational feature of the vehicle comprises simulating the expected driving behavior corresponding to the operational feature in the vehicle with one or more notifications comprising lighting, audio, and video signals.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the operational feature comprises an adaptive cruise control (ACC), a hill descent control (HDC), a lane keeping assistance (LKA) feature, a basic park assistance (PA) feature, a lane departure warning (LDW) feature, a change in one or more settings related to a component of the vehicle, a learning feature about an advanced driver assistance system (ADAS), or an autonomous vehicle feature.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the providing of the feedback based on the comparing comprises:

presenting an animation with synchronized audio to the user; and

activating one or more lights of the vehicle in a demonstration indicating the expected driving behavior corresponding to the operational feature of the vehicle.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the simulating of the expected driving behavior corresponding to the operational feature of the vehicle comprises:

determining a status mode of the vehicle, the status mode of the vehicle being one of a parking mode or a drive mode; and

in response to the determining that the status mode is the parking mode, simulating the expected driving behavior corresponding to the operational feature of the vehicle.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

in response to the determining that the status mode is the drive mode, determining whether the in-vehicle tutorial is allowed in the drive mode;

in response to the in-vehicle tutorial being not allowed in the drive mode;

generating an error message; and

presenting the error message to the user; and

presenting an instruction of the in-vehicle tutorial to the driver in response to the in-vehicle tutorial being allowed in the drive mode.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the simulating of the expected driving behavior corresponding to the operational feature of the vehicle comprises:

determining a status mode of the vehicle, the status mode of the vehicle being one of a parking mode or a drive mode;

determining another feature that is applicable to the status mode of the vehicle; and

simulating the expected driving behavior corresponding to the operational feature of the vehicle with respect to the another feature.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

initiating the in-vehicle tutorial based on the request; and

terminating the in-vehicle tutorial in response to a failure of receiving a response from the user within a predetermined time period.

9. A method comprising:

detecting, by one or more processors of one or more computing apparatus, a driving context corresponding to an operational feature of a vehicle;

initiating, by the one or more processors, an in-vehicle tutorial of the operational feature to a user of the vehicle by controlling a multimedia user interface of the vehicle to perform a plurality of operations comprising;

vibrating a steering wheel or another component of the vehicle;

activating one or more lights of the vehicle; and

engaging in a dialogue with the user using speech recognition and machine learning;

monitoring, by the one or more processors, a driving behavior of the user by communicating with a plurality of sensors of the vehicle that sense various parameters of the vehicle to collect sensor data from the plurality of sensors;

comparing, by the one or more processors, the driving behavior of the user with an expected driving behavior corresponding to the operational feature; and

providing, by the one or more processors, a feedback to the user based on the comparing.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

determining the expected driving behavior corresponding to the operational feature.

11. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

requesting an approval for the in-vehicle tutorial from the user;

receiving the approval from the user; and

in response to the approval, providing an instruction of the in-vehicle tutorial to the user.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the driving context comprises a status mode of the vehicle and an operational context, wherein the status mode being one of a parking mode or a drive mode.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the operational context comprises at least one of an environmental condition, a driving condition, a traffic condition, or a geographic condition.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein the driving context comprises a landform that extends above a surrounding terrain, and wherein the operational feature comprises an adaptive cruise control (ACC), a hill descent control (HDC), a lane keeping assistance (LKA) feature, a basic park assistance (PA) feature, a lane departure warning (LDW) feature, a change in one or more settings related to a component of the vehicle, a learning feature about an advanced driver assistance system (ADAS), or an autonomous vehicle feature.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the detecting of the driving context corresponding to the operational feature of the vehicle comprises:

detecting that the vehicle is on a top of the landform, a slope of the landform greater than a predetermined value;

determining that the HDC corresponds to the landform; and

determining the in-vehicle tutorial for the HDC.