FUEL-SAVING DRIVING DIAGNOSTIC DEVICE, FUEL-SAVING DRIVING DIAGNOSTIC SYSTEM, CONTROL DEVICE OF PRIME MOVER, FUEL-SAVING DRIVING RATING DEVICE, AND FUEL-SAVING DRIVING DIAGNOSTIC METHOD

• US 20110133921A1
• Filed: 07/30/2009
• Published: 06/09/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 07/31/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Aisin AW Company Limited (Aisin Corp.), DENSO Corporation, Fujitsu Ten Limited (DENSO Corporation), Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Aisin AW Company Limited (Aisin Corp.), DENSO Corporation, Fujitsu Ten Limited (DENSO Corporation), Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Inventors: Nakamura, Masaki, Sugiura, Hiroaki, Nonomura, Junichi, Miura, Naoki, Yamatani, Yoshio, Takeuchi, Shojiro, Harumoto, Satoshi, Kiyo, Kouei, Tauchi, Nobutaka
• Granted Patent: US 8,508,354 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/439
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2530/18 Distance travelled
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/18072 Coasting
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 50/14 Means for informing the driver, warning the driver or prompting a driver intervention
• CPC Class Codes: F02D 2200/604 Engine control mode selected by driver, e.g. to manually start particle filter regeneration or to select driving style
• CPC Class Codes: F02D 29/02 peculiar to engines driving vehicles; peculiar to engines driving variable pitch propellers
• CPC Class Codes: F02D 41/021 Introducing corrections for particular conditions exterior to the engine conjoint control of vehicle sub-units for propelling the vehicle B60W30/18
• CPC Class Codes: F02D 41/123 the fuel injection being cut-off
• CPC Class Codes: F02D 41/2403 using essentially up/down counters

Abstract

An accelerator-off, fuel-cut traveling determining unit determines whether the number of engine revolutions of a vehicle is equal to or higher than a predetermined value, whether an accelerator opening rate is equal to or lower than a predetermined value, and whether a traveling state is an accelerator-off, fuel-cut traveling state where a quantity of fuel injection to an engine is 0. When it is determined that the traveling state is the accelerator-off, fuel-cut traveling state, the traveling distance adding-up unit adds up accelerator-off, fuel-cut traveling distances. A fuel-saving driving rating unit rates driving by a driver based on each of the added-up values which were added up by the traveling distance adding-up unit. A fuel-saving driving advice generating unit notifies the driver of a fuel-saving driving advice together with a rating result in accordance with the rating result. Therefore, it is possible to encourage the driver to perform early engine operation by an engine braking, and to enhance the driver'"'"'s awareness of fuel saving driving.

Claims

1. A fuel-saving driving diagnostic device comprising:

a condition managing unit that manages an accelerator-off traveling condition which is a condition defining a control status of a vehicle for determining whether the vehicle is performing an accelerator-off traveling or not;

a condition changing unit that changes the accelerator-off traveling condition according to a road condition or a traffic condition acquired by a road/traffic condition acquiring device which acquires a road condition and/or a traffic condition;

a determining unit that determines whether the control status of the vehicle satisfies the accelerator-off traveling condition or not; and

a diagnosing unit that makes a fuel-saving-driving diagnosis by determining whether to cause the determining unit to make determination or not based on the condition of a current traveling position of the vehicle acquired by the road/traffic condition acquiring device.

2. The fuel-saving driving diagnostic device according to claim 1, further comprising

a total-traveling-distance calculating unit that calculates a total traveling distance of the vehicle within a predetermined time period,

an accelerator-off traveling distance calculating unit that calculates an accelerator-off traveling distance for which the determining unit determines that the control status of the vehicle satisfies the accelerator-off traveling condition during the predetermined time period,

a fuel-saving driving rating unit that rates the fuel-saving driving based on the total traveling distance calculated by the total-traveling-distance calculating unit and the accelerator-off traveling distance calculated by the accelerator-off traveling distance calculating unit.

3. The fuel-saving driving diagnostic device according to claim 2 wherein, when the diagnosing unit does not cause the determining unit to make determination according to the condition of the current traveling position of the vehicle, a traveling distance of the vehicle is subtracted from the total traveling distance.

4. The fuel-saving driving diagnostic device according to claim 2, further comprising

an advice generating unit that generates a fuel-saving driving advice based on a result of rating by the fuel-saving driving rating unit.

5. The fuel-saving driving diagnostic device according to claim 4, further comprising

a notifying unit that notifies a driver one of a rating result by the fuel-saving driving rating unit and a fuel-saving driving advice generated by the advice generating unit.

6-8. -8. (canceled)

9. A fuel-saving driving diagnostic method for rating fuel-saving driving of a vehicle, the method comprising:

a total-traveling-distance calculating step that calculates a total traveling distance of the vehicle within a predetermined time period,

an accelerator-off traveling distance calculating step that calculates an accelerator-off traveling distance for which the determining unit determines that the control status of the vehicle satisfies the accelerator-off traveling condition during the predetermined time period,

a fuel-saving driving rating step that rates the fuel-saving driving based on the total traveling distance calculated in the total-traveling-distance calculating step and the accelerator-off traveling distance calculated in the accelerator-off traveling distance calculating step.