Vehicle control system, vehicle control method, and vehicle control program

• US 10,676,101 B2
• Filed: 04/13/2016
• Issued: 06/09/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 04/13/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (Honda Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (Honda Motor Company)
• Inventors: Hatano, Kunimichi, Asakura, Masahiko, Sen, Naoto, Abe, Masaaki
• Primary Examiner(s): Sarwar, Babar
• Application Number:
  US16/090,846
• Publication Number:
  US 20190106120A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,518 Days
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 10/04 including control of propulsion units
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 10/20 including control of steering systems
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2556/45 External transmission of data to or from the vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2556/50 of positioning data, e.g. GPS [Global Positioning System] data
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/00 Purposes of road vehicle drive control systems not related to the control of a particular sub-unit, e.g. of systems using conjoint control of vehicle sub-units
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 50/082 Selecting or switching between different modes of propelling
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/09 Arrangements for giving variable traffic instructions railroad crossing signals B61L; reflectors E01F, G08B; indicating arrangements for variable information by selection or combination of individual elements G09F9/00
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096708 where the received information might be used to generate an automatic action on the vehicle control
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0969 having a display in the form of a map

Abstract

A vehicle control system including: a recognition unit that is configured to recognize a peripheral situation of a subject vehicle; an automated driving control unit that is configured to execute a plurality of driving modes including an automated driving mode of automatically performing at least one of speed control and steering control of the subject vehicle, and switch a driving mode that is executed on the basis of the peripheral situation recognized by the recognition unit; a communication unit that is configured to transmit information related to switching sites switched to a driving mode in which the degree of automated driving is low by the automated driving control unit on the basis of the peripheral situation recognized by the recognition unit to an external device, and receive information related to a specific site derived on the basis of the information related to the switching sites, which is collected from vehicles, from the external device; and an information providing unit that is configured to output predetermined information in a case where the subject vehicle approaches the specific site indicated by the information related to the specific site which is received by the communication unit.

Claims

1. A vehicle control system, comprising:

a memory that stores program components; and

a processor that executes the program components, the program components comprising;

a recognition unit configured to recognize a peripheral situation of a subject vehicle;

an automated driving control unit configured to

execute a plurality of driving modes including an automated driving mode of automatically performing at least one of speed control or steering control of the subject vehicle, and

switch a currently executed driving mode based on the peripheral situation recognized by the recognition unit;

a communication unit configured to

transmit, to an external device, first information related to switching sites switched by the automated driving control unit from a first driving mode in which an operation by a driver is not necessary to a second driving mode in which an operation by the driver is necessary based on the peripheral situation recognized by the recognition unit, and

receive, from the external device, second information related to a specific site derived based on the first information related to the switching sites, which is collected from vehicles, wherein

the first information related to the switching sites includes information indicating whether each of the vehicles performs switching of the driving mode at each of the switching sites, and

the external device is configured to derive an index based on a numerical value obtained by statistic calculation of presence or absence of the switching of the driving mode for each of the switching sites, determine a site at which the index derived for each of the switching sites is greater than a threshold value as the specific site, and transmit, as the second information, information related to the specific site to the communication unit; and

an information providing unit configured to output third information indicating that switching of the driving mode occurs in a vicinity of the specific site before the subject vehicle reaches the specific site indicated by the second information by a predetermined distance or by a predetermined time.

2. The vehicle control system according to claim 1,

wherein the automated driving control unit is configured to switch the current driving mode based on the second information related to the specific site.

3. The vehicle control system according to claim 1, wherein the program components further comprise:

a map edition unit configured to add, to map information, position information of the specific site, wherein the position information is indicated by the second information that relates to the specific site.

4. The vehicle control system according to claim 1, wherein

the external device is configured to derive a position of the specific site based on the first information related to the switching sites which is collected from the vehicles, and add derived position information of the specific site to map information that is retained by the external device, and

the second information related to the specific site is information obtained by adding the position information of the specific site to at least a portion of the map information that is retained by the external device.

5. A vehicle control method, comprising:

recognizing, by a system comprising a processor, a peripheral situation of a subject vehicle;

executing, by the system, a plurality of driving modes, the plurality of driving modes comprising an automated driving mode of automatically performing at least one of speed control or steering control of the subject vehicle;

switching, by the system, a driving mode that is executed based on the peripheral situation;

transmitting, by the system to an external device, first information related to switching sites switched from a first driving mode in which an operation by a driver is not necessary to a second driving mode in which an operation by the driver is necessary based on the peripheral situation;

receiving, by the system from the external device, second information related to a specific site derived based on the first information related to the switching sites, which is collected from vehicles including the subject vehicle, wherein

the first information related to the switching sites comprises information indicating whether each of the vehicles performs switching of the driving mode at each of the switching sites, and

the external device derives an index based on a numerical value obtained by statistic calculation of presence or absence of the switching of the driving mode for each of the switching sites, identifies a site at which the index derived for each of the switching sites is greater than a threshold value as the specific site, and transmits, as the second information, information related to the specific site; and

outputting, by the system, third information indicating that switching of the driving mode occurs in a vicinity of the specific site before the subject vehicle reaches the specific site indicated by the second information by a predetermined distance or by a predetermined time.

6. The vehicle control method of claim 5, further comprising switching, by the system, the driving mode based on the second information related to the specific site.

7. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing a vehicle control program that, in response to execution, cause a system to perform operations, the operations comprising:

recognizing a peripheral situation of a subject vehicle;

executing a plurality of driving modes including an automated driving mode of automatically performing at least one of speed control or steering control of the subject vehicle;

switching a driving mode that is executed based on the peripheral situation;

transmitting, to an external device, first information related to switching sites switched from a first driving mode in which an operation by a driver is not necessary to a second driving mode in which an operation by the driver is necessary based on the peripheral situation;

receiving second information related to a specific site derived based on the first information related to the switching sites and collected from multiple vehicles including the subject vehicle, wherein

the first information related to the switching sites comprises information indicating whether the multiple vehicles respectively perform switching of the driving mode at each of the switching sites, and

the external device derives an index based on a numerical value obtained by statistic calculation of presence or absence of the switching of the driving mode for each of the switching sites, identifies a site at which the index derived for each of the switching sites is greater than a threshold value as the specific site, and transmits, as the second information, information related to the specific site; and

outputting third information indicating that switching of the driving mode occurs in a vicinity of the specific site before the subject vehicle reaches the specific site indicated by the second information by a predetermined distance or by a predetermined time.