Automatic driving device

• US 10,198,944 B2
• Filed: 12/20/2017
• Issued: 02/05/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 01/19/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Inventors: Urano, Hiromitsu
• Primary Examiner(s): Shafi, Muhammad
• Application Number:
  US15/848,675
• Publication Number:
  US 20180137751A1
• Time in Patent Office: 412 Days
• Field of Search: 701400-541, 340988-996
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3453 Special cost functions, i.e. other than distance or default speed limit of road segments
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3461 Preferred or disfavoured areas, e.g. dangerous zones, toll or emission zones, intersections, manoeuvre types, segments such as motorways, toll roads, ferries
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3492 employing speed data or traffic data, e.g. real-time or historical traffic control systems for road vehicles involving transmission of navigation instructions to the vehicle G08G1/0968
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0088 characterized by the autonomous decision making process, e.g. artificial intelligence, predefined behaviours using knowledge based models G06N5/00
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0112 from the vehicle, e.g. floating car data [FCD]
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0125 Traffic data processing
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/015 with provision for distinguishing between two or more types of vehicles, e.g. between motor-cars and cycles

Abstract

An automatic driving device includes a position acquisition unit configured to acquire position information on another automatically-driving vehicle and another manually-driving vehicle, a route searching unit configured to search a route, a calculation unit configured to calculate a ratio of the number of the other automatically-driving vehicles to a total number of all other vehicles on the route for each route based on the position information on the other automatically-driving vehicle and the position information on the other manually-driving vehicle when a plurality of routes is searched, a selection unit configured to select the route wherein the other automatically-driving vehicle ratio calculated by the calculation unit is highest as a route for the host vehicle to travel, and a control unit configured to control automatic driving of the host vehicle so travel along the selected route.

Claims

1. A device configured to select a route from a first point to a second point and perform an automatic driving of a host vehicle so as to travel along the selected route, the device comprising:

a first position acquisition unit configured to acquire position information on other automatically-driving vehicles that perform automatic driving;

a route searching unit configured to determine a plurality of routes from the first point to the second point based on map information;

a vehicle speed acquisition unit configured to acquire a vehicle speed of each of the other automatically-driving vehicles on which the position information is acquired by the first position acquisition unit;

a vehicle-to-vehicle distance estimation unit configured to estimate a vehicle-to-vehicle distance on each of the plurality of routes based on the vehicle speed acquired by the vehicle speed acquisition unit;

a calculation unit configured to calculate a total number of all other vehicles, which is the total number of all vehicles other than the host vehicle, on each of the plurality of routes based on the distance for each route from the first point to the second point acquired by the map information and the vehicle-to-vehicle distance for each route estimated by the vehicle-to-vehicle distance estimation unit, and calculate a ratio of the number of the other automatically-driving vehicles to the total number of all other vehicles for each of the plurality of routes;

a selection unit configured to select a route from among the plurality of routes in which the other automatically-driving vehicle ratio calculated by the calculation unit is the highest as a route for the host vehicle to travel; and

a control unit configured to control the host vehicle such that the host vehicle travels along the route selected by the selection unit.

2. The device of claim 1, wherein the first position acquisition unit is configured to acquire the position information on all other automatically-driving vehicles within a predetermined range from each of the plurality of routes determined by the route searching unit.

3. The device of claim 1, wherein the vehicles besides the other automatically-driving vehicles that do not perform automatic driving are manually-driving vehicles.

4. The device of claim 3, wherein the total number of all other vehicles on the route for each one of the plurality of routes is the sum of all other automatically-driving vehicles and all of the manually-driving vehicles on each route.