Minimizing false collision avoidance warnings

• US 10,239,452 B1
• Filed: 11/15/2017
• Issued: 03/26/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 11/15/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Inventors: Szczepaniak, Alex, Surnilla, Gopichandra, Zhang, Hao, Reed, Dennis Craig, Feldkamp, Timothy Mark
• Primary Examiner(s): Nwugo, Ojiako K
• Application Number:
  US15/814,352
• Time in Patent Office: 496 Days
• Field of Search: 340903, 34099519, 34099521, 34099522, 34099525, 701410, 701411, 701417, 701428, 701442, 701445, 701446, 701534
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 9/008 for anti-collision purposes
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2050/0075 Automatic parameter input, automatic initialising or calibrating means
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2552/00 Input parameters relating to infrastructure
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2552/30 Road curve radius
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2556/10 Historical data
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2556/50 of positioning data, e.g. GPS [Global Positioning System] data
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/08 Active safety systems predicting or avoiding probable or impending collision or attempting to minimise its consequences
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 50/14 Means for informing the driver, warning the driver or prompting a driver intervention
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0104 Measuring and analyzing of parameters relative to traffic conditions
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0112 from the vehicle, e.g. floating car data [FCD]
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0129 for creating historical data or processing based on historical data
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/163 involving continuous checking
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/166 for active traffic, e.g. moving vehicles, pedestrians, bikes

Abstract

A route learning system for a vehicle and a method of using the system is described. The method includes: in response to determining that a current location matches a historical location, retrieving from memory false alert geotag that includes historical path data; and based on determining that a currently-predicted path does not match the historical path, replacing the currently-predicted path with the historical path to mitigate a false warning to a driver of a host vehicle.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

in response to determining that a current location matches a historical location, retrieving from memory false alert geotag that includes historical path data; and

based on determining that a currently-predicted path does not match the historical path, replacing the currently-predicted path with the historical path to mitigate a false warning to a driver of a host vehicle.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the geotag was stored previously in memory in response to:

receiving a collision avoidance alert; and

determining that an actual path of the vehicle, after receiving the alert, differed from a predicted path at a time thereof.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the alert is based at least partially on receiving a vehicle-to-vehicle communication from a target vehicle.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the actual path is determined using a plurality of path points.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein each of the path points comprise a respective pair of x- and y-coordinates, wherein, in determining the actual path, a respective z-axis coordinate of each respective path point is ignored.

6. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

storing a first path point, then storing a second path point following a first interval, and then storing a third path point following a second interval.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein determining that the currently-predicted path does not match the historical path further comprises comparing a predicted radius or predicted curvature of the currently-predicted path with a historical radius of the historical path or a corresponding historical curvature thereof.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein determining that the currently-predicted path does not match the historical path further comprises comparing a predicted radius or predicted curvature of the currently-predicted path with a historical radius of the historical path or a corresponding historical curvature thereof.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining a range to a nearest starting point location from among a plurality of false alert geotags, and based on the determined range, delaying comparing current location with historical location data of the plurality.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

replacing the currently-predicted path at a false alert detection system; and

sending the replaced currently-predicted path from the false alert detection system to a collision avoidance system which generated an alert.

11. A system, comprising:

a processor; and

memory storing instructions executable by the processor, the instructions comprising, to;

in response to determining that a current location matches a historical location, retrieve from memory false alert geotag that includes historical path data; and

based on determining that a currently-predicted path does not match the historical path, replace the currently-predicted path with the historical path to mitigate a false warning to a driver of a host vehicle.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the geotag was stored previously in memory in response to instructions to:

receive a collision avoidance alert; and

determine that an actual path of the vehicle, after receiving the alert, differed from a predicted path at a time thereof.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the alert is based at least partially on receiving a vehicle-to-vehicle communication from a target vehicle.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the actual path is determined using a plurality of path points.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein each of the path points comprise a respective pair of x- and y-coordinates, wherein, in determining the actual path, a respective z-axis coordinate of each respective path point is ignored.

16. The system of claim 12, wherein the instructions further comprise, to:

store a first path point, then store a second path point following a first interval, and then store a third path point following a second interval.

17. The system of claim 11, wherein the instruction to determine that the currently-predicted path does not match the historical path further comprises an instruction to compare a predicted radius or predicted curvature of the currently-predicted path with a historical radius of the historical path or a corresponding historical curvature thereof.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the instruction to determine that the currently-predicted path does not match the historical path comprises an instruction to compare a predicted center of a circle that comprises the predicted radius or predicted curvature with a historical center location of a circle associated with the historical radius or a corresponding historical curvature thereof.

19. The system of claim 11, further comprising determining a range to a nearest starting point location from among a plurality of false alert geotags, and based on the determined range, delaying comparing current location with historical location data of the plurality.

20. The system of claim 11, wherein the instructions further comprise, to:

replace the currently-predicted path at a false alert detection system; and

send the replaced currently-predicted path from the false alert detection system to a collision avoidance system which generated an alert.