Vehicle control device, vehicle control method, and storage medium

• US 10,640,128 B2
• Filed: 03/05/2019
• Issued: 05/05/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 03/13/2018
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (Honda Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (Honda Motor Company)
• Inventors: Hirose, Takafumi, Ishisaka, Kentaro, Watanabe, Takashi, Tsukada, Takemi, Yashiro, Katsuya, Kokaki, Toru, Matsuda, Hisashi, Ikeda, Masaya
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Phung
• Application Number:
  US16/292,402
• Publication Number:
  US 20190283775A1
• Time in Patent Office: 427 Days
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2050/146 Display means
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2554/80 Spatial relation or speed relative to objects
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2556/50 of positioning data, e.g. GPS [Global Positioning System] data
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 40/08 related to drivers or passengers
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 50/14 Means for informing the driver, warning the driver or prompting a driver intervention
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 60/00139 for sight-seeing
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3679 Retrieval, searching and output of POI information, e.g. hotels, restaurants, shops, filling stations, parking facilities G01C21/3611 takes precedence
• 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: G06V 20/56 exterior to a vehicle by using sensors mounted on the vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/597 Recognising the driver's state or behaviour, e.g. attention or drowsiness

Abstract

A vehicle control device including: a recognizer (13) that recognizes a surrounding situation of a subject vehicle; a driving controller (140 or 160) that executes driving control of controlling one or both of steering and acceleration/deceleration of the subject vehicle on the basis of the surrounding situation recognized by the recognizer; and a notifier (30 or 180) that notifies a vehicle occupant of the subject vehicle of predetermined information, wherein the driving controller sets a degree of margin for a surrounding environment set in the driving control after start of the notification of the predetermined information using the notifier to be higher than that before start of the notification of the predetermined information.

Claims

1. A vehicle control device comprising:

a recognizer that recognizes a surrounding situation of a subject vehicle;

a driving controller that executes driving control of controlling one or both of steering and acceleration/deceleration of the subject vehicle on the basis of the surrounding situation recognized by the recognizer; and

a notifier that notifies a vehicle occupant of the subject vehicle of predetermined information,

wherein the driving controller sets a degree of margin for a surrounding environment set in the driving control after start of the notification of the predetermined information using the notifier to be higher than that before start of the notification of the predetermined information.

2. The vehicle control device according to claim 1, further comprising a vehicle occupant state estimator that estimates a state of the vehicle occupant of the subject vehicle,

wherein, in a case in which it is estimated by the vehicle occupant state estimator that the vehicle occupant has performed a specific behavior after the notification of the predetermined information using the notifier, the driving controller sets the degree of margin for the surrounding environment set in the driving control to be higher than that before start of the notification of the predetermined information.

3. The vehicle control device according to claim 1,

wherein the predetermined information includes guidance information based on a landscape feature.

4. The vehicle control device according to claim 1,

wherein the driving controller determines whether or not there is a need to notify the vehicle occupant of the predetermined information and causes the notifier to notify the predetermined information in a case in which it is determined that there is a need to notify the vehicle occupant.

5. The vehicle control device according to claim 4,

wherein the driving controller determines whether or not there is a need to notify the vehicle occupant of the predetermined information on the basis of presence/absence of interest of the vehicle occupant in the predetermined information.

6. The vehicle control device according to claim 1,

wherein the vehicle occupant includes a driver and a passenger of the subject vehicle.

7. The vehicle control device according to claim 1,

wherein the driving controller executes the driving control in a plurality of modes including a first driving mode and a second driving mode having a rate of automation of the driving control which is higher than in the first driving mode or having less required tasks for the vehicle occupant than in the first driving mode and causes the notifier to notify predetermined information in a case in which driving control according to the second driving mode is executed.

8. The vehicle control device according to claim 1,

wherein the degree of margin includes at least one of a clearance between the subject vehicle and another vehicle, a speed of the subject vehicle, and a running position of the subject vehicle.

9. A vehicle control device comprising:

a recognizer that recognizes a surrounding situation of a subject vehicle;

a driving controller that executes driving control of controlling one or both of steering and acceleration/deceleration of the subject vehicle on the basis of the surrounding situation recognized by the recognizer; and

a notifier that notifies a vehicle occupant of the subject vehicle of predetermined information,

wherein the driving controller sets a degree of margin for a surrounding environment set in the driving control after a predetermined time before start of the notification of the predetermined information using the notifier to be higher than that before the predetermined time before start of the notification of the predetermined information.

10. A vehicle control method using a vehicle control device, the vehicle control method comprising:

recognizing a surrounding situation of a subject vehicle;

executing driving control of controlling one or both of steering and acceleration/deceleration of the subject vehicle on the basis of the recognized surrounding situation;

notifying a vehicle occupant of the subject vehicle of predetermined information; and

setting a degree of margin for a surrounding environment set in the driving control after start of the notification of the predetermined information to be higher than that before start of the notification of the predetermined information.

11. A computer-readable non-transitory storage medium having a program stored thereon, the program causing a vehicle control device to execute:

recognizing a surrounding situation of a subject vehicle;

executing driving control of controlling one or both of steering and acceleration/deceleration of the subject vehicle on the basis of the recognized surrounding situation;

notifying a vehicle occupant of the subject vehicle of predetermined information; and

setting a degree of margin for a surrounding environment set in the driving control after start of the notification of the predetermined information to be higher than that before start of the notification of the predetermined information.