Cruise control device and cruise control method
First Claim
1. A travel control device that controls a transmission to perform a downshift from a first transmission gear to a second transmission gear, the travel control device comprising:
- a road information acquiring section that acquires information about a road in a predetermined section ahead of a vehicle travelling with the first transmission gear;
a vehicle information acquiring section that acquires information about the vehicle;
a speed estimating section that estimates, based on the information about the road and the information about the vehicle, a transition of a vehicle speed in the predetermined section in a case where the vehicle travels in the predetermined section with the first transmission gear; and
a transmission control section that controls the transmission to maintain the first transmission gear without performing a downshift from the first transmission gear to the second transmission gear when a condition where the transition of the vehicle speed estimated by the speed estimating section has a minimum value at a position other than an end of the predetermined section, and the minimum value is larger than a grace speed set at a value smaller than a speed set in advance as a speed at which the downshift is performed is satisfied,wherein the transition of the vehicle speed estimated by the speed estimating section is a transition of the vehicle speed when the vehicle travels in the predetermined section with a maximum accelerator opening.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A road information acquisition unit (12a) acquires information about the road in a prescribed segment in front, a vehicle information acquisition unit (12b) acquires information about the vehicle (1), a velocity prediction unit (12c) predicts, on the basis of the road information and the information about the vehicle (1), the changes in the vehicle velocity that would be brought about in the prescribed segment in the case of travelling the prescribed segment in a first gear, and a shift control unit (12d) which maintains the first gear if the condition is satisfied that the predicted vehicle velocity exhibits a minimum value other than at the ends of the prescribed segment and the minimum value is greater than the delay speed, which is set to a value less than a predetermined velocity set as the velocity that would result from downshifting.
-
Citations
4 Claims
-
1. A travel control device that controls a transmission to perform a downshift from a first transmission gear to a second transmission gear, the travel control device comprising:
-
a road information acquiring section that acquires information about a road in a predetermined section ahead of a vehicle travelling with the first transmission gear; a vehicle information acquiring section that acquires information about the vehicle; a speed estimating section that estimates, based on the information about the road and the information about the vehicle, a transition of a vehicle speed in the predetermined section in a case where the vehicle travels in the predetermined section with the first transmission gear; and a transmission control section that controls the transmission to maintain the first transmission gear without performing a downshift from the first transmission gear to the second transmission gear when a condition where the transition of the vehicle speed estimated by the speed estimating section has a minimum value at a position other than an end of the predetermined section, and the minimum value is larger than a grace speed set at a value smaller than a speed set in advance as a speed at which the downshift is performed is satisfied, wherein the transition of the vehicle speed estimated by the speed estimating section is a transition of the vehicle speed when the vehicle travels in the predetermined section with a maximum accelerator opening. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3)
-
-
4. A travel control method for controlling a transmission to perform a downshift from a first transmission gear to a second transmission gear, the method comprising:
-
acquiring information about a road in a predetermined section ahead of a vehicle travelling with the first transmission gear; acquiring information about the vehicle; estimating, based on the information about the road and the information about the vehicle, a transition of a vehicle speed in the predetermined section when the vehicle travels in the predetermined section with the first transmission gear, the transition of the vehicle speed being a transition of the vehicle speed when the vehicle travels in the predetermined section with a maximum accelerator opening; and controlling the transmission to maintain the first transmission gear without performing a downshift from the first transmission gear to the second transmission gear when a condition where the transition of the vehicle speed estimated in the estimating has a minimum value at a position other than an end of the predetermined section, and the minimum value is larger than a grace speed set at a value smaller than a speed set in advance as a speed at which the downshift is performed is satisfied.
-
Specification