Driving assistance apparatus

• US 10,403,146 B2
• Filed: 12/06/2017
• Issued: 09/03/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 12/15/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Inventors: Ikedo, Yuji, Akiyama, Tomonori, Morishita, Ryo
• Primary Examiner(s): Butler, Rodney A
• Application Number:
  US15/833,966
• Publication Number:
  US 20180174464A1
• Time in Patent Office: 636 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/166 for active traffic, e.g. moving vehicles, pedestrians, bikes

Abstract

A driving assistance apparatus includes a plurality of sensor devices mounted in a host vehicle, an attention calling device configured to call attention of a driver of the host vehicle, and at least one electronic control unit. The at least one electronic control unit acquires host vehicle information, acquires object information, estimates an expected path through which the host vehicle passes, determines whether or not a target object is present, determines whether or not there is a front space in front of the host vehicle based on the object information, generates a request signal so as to call attention of the driver of the host vehicle, forbids generation of the request signal when the electronic control unit determines that the target object is present, and that there is no front space, and controls the attention calling device to call attention of the driver.

Claims

1. A driving assistance apparatus comprising:

a plurality of sensor devices mounted in a host vehicle;

an attention calling device configured to call attention of a driver of the host vehicle; and

at least one electronic control unit configured to

acquire, based on detection outputs of the sensor devices, host vehicle information including parameters related to a vehicle speed of the host vehicle and a yaw rate of the host vehicle,

acquire, based on the detection outputs of the sensor devices, object information including a relative position of an object present around the host vehicle with respect to the host vehicle, a traveling direction of the object, and a speed of the object,

estimate, based on the host vehicle information, an expected path through which the host vehicle is expected to pass,

determine, based on the object information, whether or not a target object that is an object likely to cross the expected path within a threshold time period is present,

determine, based on at least the object information, whether or not there is a front space in front of the host vehicle, front space being a space allowing the target object to pass in front of the host vehicle,

generate a request signal so as to call attention of the driver of the host vehicle, when the electronic control unit determines that the target object is present, and that there is the front space,

forbid generation of the request signal when the electronic control unit determines that the target object is present, and that there is no front space, and

control the attention calling device to call attention of the driver in response to generation of the request signal.

2. The driving assistance apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:

the electronic control unit is configured to extract an object that is present around the host vehicle;

the electronic control unit determines whether or not all of a predetermined front and rear distance condition, a predetermined horizontal distance condition, and a predetermined horizontal speed condition are satisfied, the front and rear distance condition being a condition that a front and rear distance that is a distance from the host vehicle to the extracted object in a traveling direction of the host vehicle is less than or equal to a predetermined front and rear distance threshold, the horizontal distance condition being a condition that a horizontal distance is less than or equal to a predetermined horizontal distance threshold, the horizontal distance being a distance from the host vehicle to the extracted object in an orthogonal direction that is a direction orthogonal with respect to the traveling direction of the host vehicle, and the horizontal speed condition being a condition that a horizontal speed that is a speed of the extracted object in the orthogonal direction is less than or equal to a predetermined horizontal speed threshold; and

the electronic control unit is configured to determine that there is no front space, when the electronic control unit determines that the extracted object satisfies all of the conditions.

3. The driving assistance apparatus according to claim 2, wherein:

the electronic control unit is configured to determine whether or not the host vehicle is traveling straight;

when the electronic control unit determines that the host vehicle is traveling straight, the electronic control unit estimates, as the expected path, a path that extends in a linear shape in the traveling direction of the host vehicle from the host vehicle and has a predetermined length; and

the electronic control unit is configured to set the front and rear distance threshold to be less than or equal to the predetermined length of the expected path of the host vehicle.