Electronic control units, vehicles, and methods for switching vehicle control from an autonomous driving mode

• US 10,133,270 B2
• Filed: 03/28/2017
• Issued: 11/20/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 03/28/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Toyota Research Institute, Inc. (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Inventors: Michalakis, Nikolaos, Paepcke, Stephanie
• Primary Examiner(s): Kan, Yuri
• Application Number:
  US15/471,065
• Publication Number:
  US 20180284759A1
• Time in Patent Office: 602 Days
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 10/04 including control of propulsion units
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 10/20 including control of steering systems
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2050/143 Alarm means
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2420/403 Image sensing, e.g. optical camera
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2420/408 Radar; Laser, e.g. lidar
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2520/28 Wheel speed
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2540/18 Steering angle
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2540/221 Physiology, e.g. weight, heartbeat, health or special needs
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2540/223 Posture, e.g. hand, foot, or seat position, turned or inclined
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2540/225 Direction of gaze
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2540/229 Attention level, e.g. attentive to driving, reading or sleeping
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2540/26 Incapacity
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2552/53 Road markings, e.g. lane marker or crosswalk
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/02 Control of vehicle driving stability
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/10 Path keeping cruise control for automatically following a preceding vehicle B60W30/165
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/16 Control of distance between vehicles, e.g. keeping a distance to preceding vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/182 Selecting between different operative modes, e.g. comfort and performance modes
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 50/0097 Predicting future conditions
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 50/082 Selecting or switching between different modes of propelling
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 50/14 Means for informing the driver, warning the driver or prompting a driver intervention
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 60/0053 : from vehicle to occupant
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 60/0059 : Estimation of the risk associated with autonomous or manual driving, e.g. situation too complex, sensor failure or driver incapacity
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 60/0061 : Aborting handover process
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0011 : associated with a remote control arrangement
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0027 : involving a plurality of vehicles, e.g. fleet or convoy travelling fleet control of land vehicles from a control room G05D1/0297; traffic control systems for road vehicles G08G1/00; for marine craft G08G3/00; for aircraft G08G5/00
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0061 : for transition from automatic pilot to manual pilot and vice versa

Abstract

An electronic control unit for a vehicle for switching vehicle control from an autonomous driving mode includes one or more processors, network interface hardware configured to communicate with a remote server over a network, and one or more memory modules that store logic. The electronic control unit executes logic to determine that the autonomous driving mode of the vehicle will terminate, determine that a driver is unavailable to take immediate control of the vehicle upon termination of the autonomous driving, transfer control of the vehicle to a remote operator over the network interface hardware for a first time period, generate an alert to the driver to take manual control of the vehicle, and transfer control of the vehicle to one of the driver and the autonomous driving mode after the first time period has elapsed.

Claims

1. An electronic control unit for a vehicle for switching vehicle control from an autonomous driving mode, the electronic control unit comprising:

one or more processors;

network interface hardware communicatively coupled to the one or more processors and configured to communicate with a remote server over a network; and

one or more memory modules communicatively coupled to the one or more processors that store logic that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the electronic control unit to;

determine that the autonomous driving mode of the vehicle will terminate;

determine that a driver is unavailable to take immediate control of the vehicle upon termination of the autonomous driving mode based on a driver condition signal output by one or more driver condition sensors;

transfer control of the vehicle to a remote operator over the network interface hardware for a first time period in response to determining that the driver is unavailable to take immediate control of the vehicle upon termination of the autonomous driving mode;

generate an alert to the driver to take manual control of the vehicle in response to determining that the autonomous driving mode will terminate;

monitor the driver during the first time period, in response to transferring control of the vehicle to the remote operator, to determine whether the driver has become available to take control of the vehicle based on the driver condition signal output by the one or more driver condition sensors; and

transfer control of the vehicle to one of the driver or the autonomous driving mode after the first time period has elapsed.

2. The electronic control unit of claim 1, wherein control is only transferred to the driver after the first time period has elapsed when it is determined that the driver is available.

3. The electronic control unit of claim 1, wherein control is transferred to the autonomous driving mode after the first time period has elapsed when is determined that the driver is not available.

4. The electronic control unit of claim 1, wherein:

the electronic control unit determines that the autonomous driving mode of the vehicle will terminate based on at least one of a driving condition signal output by one or more driving condition sensors and a communication received over the network interface hardware; and

the driving condition signal output by one of the one or more driving condition sensors and the communication received over the network interface hardware includes at least one of;

upcoming traffic conditions, upcoming inclement weather, upcoming construction zones, and upcoming restricted autonomous driving zones.

5. The electronic control unit of claim 1, wherein the transfer of control of the vehicle to the remote operator grants the remote operator control over one or more vehicle systems including at least one of a steering system, a propulsion system, a stability control system, a navigation system, and an energy system.

6. The electronic control unit of claim 1, wherein, when executed by the one or more processors, the logic stored on the one or more memory modules further cause the electronic control unit to:

generate an alert to the remote operator over the network interface hardware to take control of the vehicle in response to determining that the autonomous driving mode will terminate and that the driver is unavailable to take immediate control of the vehicle upon termination of the autonomous driving mode; and

wait an observational period after generating the alert to the remote operator and before transferring control of the vehicle to the remote operator.

7. The electronic control unit of claim 1, wherein, when executed by the one or more processors, the logic stored on the one or more memory modules further causes the electronic control unit to:

after alerting the driver to take manual control the vehicle in response to determining that the autonomous driving mode will terminate, compare driver control behavior with concurrent remote operator control behavior; and

transfer control of the vehicle to the driver when the driver control behavior substantially matches the concurrent remote operator control behavior.

8. A vehicle for switching vehicle control from an autonomous driving mode, the vehicle comprising:

one or more driver condition sensors that output a driver condition signal;

an electronic control unit comprising;

one or more processors;

network interface hardware communicatively coupled to the one or more processors and configured to communicate with a remote server over a network;

one or more memory modules communicatively coupled to the one or more processors that store logic that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the electronic control unit to;

determine that the autonomous driving mode of the vehicle will terminate;

determine that a driver is unavailable to take immediate control of the vehicle upon termination of the autonomous driving mode based on a driver condition signal output by the one or more driver condition sensors;

transfer control of the vehicle to a remote operator over the network interface hardware for a first time period in response to determining that the driver is unavailable to take immediate control of the vehicle upon termination of the autonomous driving mode;

generate an alert to the driver to take manual control of the vehicle in response to determining that the autonomous driving mode will terminate;

monitor the driver during the first time period, in response to transferring control of the vehicle to the remote operator, to determine whether the driver has become available to take control of the vehicle based on the driver condition signal output by the one or more driver condition sensors; and

transfer control of the vehicle to one of the driver or the autonomous driving mode after the first time period has elapsed.

9. The vehicle of claim 8, wherein control is only transferred to the driver after the first time period has elapsed when it is determined that the driver is available.

10. The vehicle of claim 8, wherein control is transferred to the autonomous driving mode after the first time period has elapsed when is determined that the driver is not available.

11. The vehicle of claim 8, wherein:

the electronic control unit determines that the autonomous driving mode of the vehicle will terminate based on at least one of a driving condition signal output by the one or more driving condition sensors and a communication received over the network interface hardware; and

the driving condition signal output by one of the one or more driving condition sensors and the communication received over the network interface hardware includes at least one of;

upcoming traffic conditions, upcoming inclement weather, upcoming construction zones, and upcoming restricted autonomous driving zones.

12. The vehicle of claim 8, wherein, when executed by the one or more processors, the logic stored on the one or more memory modules further causes the electronic control unit to:

generate an alert to the remote operator over the network interface hardware to take control of the vehicle in response to determining that the autonomous driving mode will terminate and that the driver is unavailable to take immediate control of the vehicle upon termination of the autonomous driving mode; and

wait an observational period after generating the alert to the remote operator and before transferring control of the vehicle to the remote operator.

13. The vehicle of claim 8, wherein, when executed by the one or more processors, the logic stored on the one or more memory modules further causes the electronic control unit to:

after alerting the driver to take manual control the vehicle in response to determining that the autonomous driving mode will terminate, compare a driver control behavior with concurrent a remote operator control behavior; and

transfer control of the vehicle to the driver when the driver control behavior substantially matches concurrent remote operator control behavior.

14. A method of switching vehicle control of a vehicle from an autonomous driving mode, the method comprising:

determining that the autonomous driving mode of the vehicle will terminate;

determining that a driver is unavailable to take immediate control of the vehicle upon termination of the autonomous driving mode based on a driver condition signal output by one or more driver condition sensors;

transferring control of the vehicle to a remote operator for a first time period in response to determining that the driver is unavailable to take immediate control of the vehicle upon termination of the autonomous driving mode;

generating an alert to the driver to take manual control of the vehicle in response to determining that the autonomous driving mode will terminate;

monitoring the driver during the first time period, in response to transferring control of the vehicle to the remote operator, to determine whether the driver has become available to take control of the vehicle based on the driver condition signal output by the one or more driver condition sensors; and

transferring control of the vehicle to one of the driver or the autonomous driving mode after the first time period has elapsed.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein determining that the autonomous driving mode of the vehicle will terminate is based on the driving condition signal output by at least one of the one or more driving condition sensors and a communication received over network interface hardware.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein:

control is only transferred to the driver after the first time period has elapsed when it is determined that the driver is available; and

control is transferred to the autonomous driving mode after the first time period has elapsed when is determined that the driver is not available.

17. The method of claim 14, further comprising waiting an observational period after generating the alert to the remote operator and before transferring control of the vehicle to the remote operator.