SAFE DRIVING EVALUATION SYSTEM AND SAFE DRIVING EVALUATION PROGRAM

• US 20100109908A1
• Filed: 09/17/2009
• Published: 05/06/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 10/30/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Aisin AW Company Limited (Aisin Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Aisin AW Company Limited (Aisin Corp.)
• Inventors: MIURA, Naoki
• Granted Patent: US 8,258,982 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/905
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 16/0232 for measuring vehicle parameters and indicating critical, abnormal or dangerous conditions
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096716 where the received information does not generate an automatic action on the vehicle control
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096741 where the source of the transmitted information selects which information to transmit to each vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096791 where the origin of the information is another vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/164 Centralised systems, e.g. external to vehicles

Abstract

Safe driving evaluation systems, methods, and programs acquire traffic signal information that indicates the display status of a traffic signal present ahead in the traveling direction of a vehicle, determine the vehicle is within a prescribed stop supplement zone set up in front of the traffic signal installation point, and determine a red light encounter, which is a state where the vehicle is within the stop supplement zone and the traffic signal information indicates that the traffic signal is red. The systems, methods, and programs perform a stop supplementary operation with respect to a driver in order to stop the vehicle at the traffic signal installation point based on a driving operation of the vehicle during the red light encounter, and calculate a stop supplement percentage.

Claims

1. A safe driving evaluation system comprising:

a traffic signal information acquisition unit that acquires traffic signal information that indicates the display status of a traffic signal present ahead in the traveling direction of a vehicle;

a zone determination unit that determines the vehicle is within a prescribed stop supplement zone set up in front of a traffic signal installation point at which the traffic signal is installed;

a red light determination unit that determines a red light encounter, which is a state where the vehicle is within the stop supplement zone and the traffic signal information indicates that the traffic signal is red;

a stop supplement unit that performs a stop supplementary operation with respect to a driver in order to stop the vehicle at the traffic signal installation point, based on a driving operation of the vehicle during the red light encounter; and

a percentage calculation unit that calculates a stop supplement percentage as a ratio of a stop supplement frequency, which is the number of times the stop supplementary operation is performed, to a red light encounter frequency, which is the number of times the vehicle has the red light encounter.

2. The safe driving evaluation system according to claim 1, wherein

the stop supplement unit performs the stop supplementary operation if an accelerator operation amount of the vehicle during the red light encounter is greater than a predetermined value.

3. The safe driving evaluation system according to claim 1, wherein, if the stop supplementary operation is performed,

the percentage calculation unit corrects the stop supplement percentage to a higher value if the traffic signal information indicates that the traffic signal is red when the vehicle passes a prescribed determination position set before the stop supplement zone.

4. The safe driving evaluation system according to claim 3, wherein

the determination position is set more forward in the traveling direction than a position at which the driver visually recognizes the display status of the traffic signal installed at the traffic signal installation point.

5. The safe driving evaluation system according to claim 1, wherein

the traffic signal information acquisition unit uses at least one of information acquired through road-to-vehicle communication and information acquired from an image recognition result for an image taken of the traffic signal by an on-vehicle camera to acquire the traffic signal information.

6. The safe driving evaluation system according to claim 1, further comprising:

a yellow-light-stop determination unit that determines the vehicle has stopped at a yellow light if the traffic signal information indicates that the traffic signal is yellow when the vehicle stopped at the traffic signal installation point, wherein

the percentage calculation unit corrects the stop supplement percentage to a lower value in accordance with a yellow light stopping frequency, which is the number of times stopping at a yellow light is determined.

7. The safe driving evaluation system according to claim 6, further comprising:

a yellow-light-run determination unit that determines the vehicle has run a yellow light if the traffic signal information indicates that the traffic signal is yellow when the vehicle passes the traffic signal installation point, wherein

the percentage calculation unit corrects the stop supplement percentage in accordance with a yellow light running frequency, which is the number of times running of the yellow light is determined, and the yellow light stopping frequency.

8. The safe driving evaluation system according to claim 1, further comprising:

a preceding vehicle detection unit that detects another vehicle present ahead within a predetermined distance in the traveling direction of the host vehicle, wherein

if the preceding vehicle detection unit detects another vehicle present ahead within a predetermined distance in the traveling direction of the host vehicle inside the stop supplement zone, the stop supplement zone is excluded from the calculation of the stop supplement percentage.

9. The safe driving evaluation system according to claim 6, further comprising:

a preceding vehicle detection unit that detects another vehicle present ahead within a predetermined distance in the traveling direction of the host vehicle, wherein

if another vehicle is detected ahead within the predetermined distance in the traveling direction of the host vehicle at the time the host vehicle stops at the traffic signal installation point, the yellow-light-stop determination unit determines that the host vehicle has not stopped at a yellow light even though the traffic signal information indicates that the traffic signal is yellow.

10. The safe driving evaluation system according to claim 7, further comprising:

a preceding vehicle detection unit that detects another vehicle present ahead within a predetermined distance in the traveling direction of the host vehicle, wherein

if another vehicle is detected ahead within the predetermined distance in the traveling direction of the host vehicle at the time the host vehicle stops at the traffic signal installation point, the yellow-light-stop determination unit determines that the host vehicle has not stopped at a yellow light even though the traffic signal information indicates that the traffic signal is yellow.

11. The safe driving evaluation system according to claim 1, further comprising:

an accident information acquisition unit that acquires information regarding the number of accidents that have occurred in the past at each traffic signal installation point, wherein

when calculating the stop supplement percentage, for each traffic signal installation point at which the stop supplementary operation has been performed, the percentage calculation unit corrects the stop supplement percentage in accordance with the number of accidents at the traffic signal installation point.

12. The safe driving evaluation system according to claim 1, further comprising:

an evaluation information acquisition unit that acquires evaluation information based on the stop supplement percentage, wherein

the evaluation information acquisition unit acquires as the evaluation information at least one of points assigned depending on the stop supplement percentage, advice whose content depends on the stop supplement percentage, and a graph display that visually represents the stop supplement percentage at certain times.

13. The safe driving evaluation system according to claim 1, further comprising:

an evaluation information acquisition unit that acquires evaluation information based on the stop supplement percentage; and

an information collection unit that collects information regarding the stop supplement percentage from a plurality of vehicles, wherein

the evaluation information acquisition unit acquires as the evaluation information at least one of a ranking for each vehicle regarding the stop supplement percentage as compared to the other vehicles and a level assigned based on the past stop supplement percentages of each vehicle compared to the other vehicles.

14. The safe driving evaluation system according to claim 13, further comprising:

an on-vehicle terminal device installed in the vehicle; and

a central control device provided in communication with a plurality of the on-vehicle terminal devices, wherein

when a main power source of the vehicle installed with the on-vehicle terminal device is turned off, the on-vehicle terminal device sends information regarding the stop supplement percentage between turning the main power source on and off to the central control device, and

the central control device generates the evaluation information for the on-vehicle terminal device based on the information regarding the stop supplement percentage received from the on-vehicle terminal device.

15. A safe driving evaluation program performing in a computer the functions of:

acquiring traffic signal information that indicates the display status of a traffic signal present ahead in the traveling direction of a vehicle;

determining the vehicle is within a prescribed stop supplement zone set up in front of a traffic signal installation point at which a traffic signal is installed;

determining a red light encounter, which is a state where the vehicle is within the stop supplement zone and the traffic signal information indicates that the traffic signal is red;

performing a stop supplementary operation with respect to a driver in order to stop the vehicle at the traffic signal installation point, based on a driving operation of the vehicle during the red light encounter; and

calculating a stop supplement percentage as a ratio of a stop supplement frequency, which is the number of times a stop supplementary operation is performed, to a red light encounter frequency, which is the number of times the vehicle has the red light encounter.