VEHICLE AND METHOD OF ADVISING A DRIVER THEREIN

• US 20110187522A1
• Filed: 10/30/2009
• Published: 08/04/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 10/30/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Inventors: Prakah-Asante, Kwaku O., Lu, Jianbo, Filev, Dimitar Petrov, Syed, Fazal Urrahman, Tseng, Fling
• Granted Patent: US 9,493,171 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/441
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2050/143 Alarm means
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2050/146 Display means
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2540/30 Driving style
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2554/801 Lateral distance
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/16 Control of distance between vehicles, e.g. keeping a distance to preceding vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 40/09 Driving style or behaviour
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 40/107 Longitudinal acceleration
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 50/16 Tactile feedback to the driver, e.g. vibration or force feedback to the driver on the steering wheel or the accelerator pedal

Abstract

A vehicle may include a driver interface and at least one controller operatively arranged with the interface. The at least one controller may be configured to determine a speed and acceleration of the vehicle, to predict a time until a future speed of the vehicle exceeds a predefined speed based on the predefined speed and the speed and acceleration of the vehicle, and to issue an alert via the interface if the time is less than a predefined time.

Claims

1. A vehicle comprising:

a driver interface; and

at least one controller operatively arranged with the interface and configured to determine a speed and acceleration of the vehicle, to predict a time until a future speed of the vehicle exceeds a predefined speed based on the predefined speed and the speed and acceleration of the vehicle, and to issue an alert via the interface if the time is less than a predefined time.

2. The vehicle of claim 1 wherein the at least one controller is further configured to categorize a driver'"'"'s dynamic control of the vehicle by type and wherein the predefined time is based on the type.

3. The vehicle claim 1 wherein the interface is a haptic accelerator pedal.

4. The vehicle of claim 1 further comprising an accelerator pedal having a position and wherein the acceleration of the vehicle is determined based on the position of the accelerator pedal.

5. The vehicle of claim 1 wherein the acceleration of the vehicle is a predicted acceleration of the vehicle.

6. The vehicle of claim 1 wherein the controller is further configured to determine whether the vehicle is in a state of braking and wherein the alert is issued before the speed of the vehicle exceeds the predefined speed if the time is less than a predefined time and the vehicle is not in a state of braking.

7. The vehicle of claim 1 wherein to predict a time until a future speed of the vehicle exceeds a predefined speed based on the predefined speed and the speed and acceleration of the vehicle includes determining a difference between the predefined speed and the speed of the vehicle and dividing the difference by the acceleration of the vehicle.

8. The vehicle of claim 1 wherein the predefined time may be input by the driver.

9. A method for advising a driver of a vehicle comprising:

predicting an acceleration of the vehicle;

determining whether the predicted acceleration is greater than a threshold acceleration; and

generating an alert for the driver before an acceleration of the vehicle exceeds the threshold acceleration if the predicted acceleration is greater than the threshold acceleration.

10. The method of claim 9 further comprising categorizing a driver'"'"'s dynamic control of the vehicle by type, wherein the threshold acceleration is based on the type.

11. The method of claim 9 wherein the vehicle includes an accelerator pedal and wherein predicting an acceleration of the vehicle includes determining a position of the accelerator pedal.

12. The method of claim 9 wherein the vehicle includes a haptic driver interface and wherein generating an alert for the driver before an acceleration of the vehicle exceeds the threshold acceleration includes activating the interface.

13. A method for advising a driver of a vehicle comprising:

determining a speed and acceleration of the vehicle; and

generating an alert for the driver before the speed of the vehicle exceeds a predefined speed based on the speed and acceleration of the vehicle and the predefined speed.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein the vehicle includes a haptic driver interface and wherein generating an alert for the driver includes activating the haptic driver interface.

15. The method of claim 13 wherein the acceleration of the vehicle is a predicted acceleration of the vehicle.

16. The method of claim 13 wherein the vehicle includes an accelerator pedal having a position and wherein the acceleration of the vehicle is determined based on the position of the accelerator pedal.

17. A method for advising a driver of a vehicle comprising:

determining a speed of the vehicle;

determining whether the vehicle is accelerating; and

generating an alert for the driver if the vehicle is accelerating and the speed of the vehicle is less than a predefined speed.