INFORMATION PROVISION DEVICE FOR USE IN VEHICLE

• US 20160101696A1
• Filed: 12/16/2015
• Published: 04/14/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 04/20/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.
• Inventors: KONDOH, Takayuki
• Granted Patent: US 9,428,057 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/18 for vehicle drivers or machine operators
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 35/00 Instruments specially adapted for vehicles; Arrangement of instruments in or on vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 40/09 Driving style or behaviour
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 50/14 Means for informing the driver, warning the driver or prompting a driver intervention
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/00 Registering or indicating the working of vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/16 Anti-collision systems road vehicle drive control systems for predicting or avoiding probable or impending collision otherwise than by control of a particular sub-unit B60W30/08
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/166 for active traffic, e.g. moving vehicles, pedestrians, bikes

Abstract

A first driving instability determining unit estimates driving instability based on a difference value between plural traveling state distributions of different time ranges on the basis of the traveling state data. A second driving instability determining unit estimates driving instability by a process different from the process used in the first driving instability determining unit. A learning completion determining unit determines that the learning is completed when a predetermined learning time elapses from the start of collection of the traveling state data, depending on a degree of learning at which the traveling state distribution calculated by a first traveling state distribution calculating unit is matched with the driving characteristic of a driver. An instability selecting unit selects the instability estimated by the first driving instability determining unit when the learning is completed and selects the instability estimated by the second driving instability determining unit when the learning is not completed.

Claims

1. An information provision device for use in a vehicle, comprising:

a traveling state acquiring unit for acquiring traveling state data including at least one of a driving operation of a driver and a vehicle state;

a first traveling state distribution calculating unit for calculating a plurality of traveling state distributions including a traveling state distribution of an immediately-previous time range indicating a current traveling state and a traveling state distribution of a time range different from the immediately-previous time range on the basis of the traveling state data acquired by the traveling state acquiring unit;

a first driving instability determining unit for estimating first driving instability on the basis of a difference value between the plurality of traveling state distributions calculated by the first traveling state distribution calculation unit;

a learning completion determining unit for determining that learning is completed when a predetermined learning time elapses from start of collection of the traveling state data;

a driving scene detecting unit for detecting whether a driving scene is a specific driving scene set in advance for use when the learning is not completed, when it is determined that the learning is not completed on the basis of the determination result of the learning completion determining unit;

a second driving instability determining unit for calculating, when it is determined that the learning is not completed on the basis of a determination result of the learning completion determining unit and the driving scene detecting unit detects the specific driving scene, a feature amount of the traveling state distribution of the immediately-previous time range which indicates a current traveling state based on the traveling state data acquired by the traveling state acquiring unit in the specific driving scene detected by the driving scene detecting unit and estimating second driving instability on the basis of the calculated feature amount;

an instability selecting unit for selecting the first driving instability when the learning is completed and selecting the second driving instability when the learning is not completed, on the basis of the determination result of the learning completion determining unit; and

an information presenting unit for presenting instability information based on instability selected by the instability selecting unit between the first driving instability and the second driving instability to the driver.

2. The information provision device for use in the vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the second driving instability determining unit calculates a tendency of the feature amount on the basis of a history of the feature amount acquired at a constant interval and estimates the second driving instability on the basis of the calculated tendency.

3. The information provision device for use in the vehicle according to claim 1, wherein a right or left turn at an intersection is detected as the specific driving scene and the feature amount is calculated from a driving characteristic at that time.

4. The information provision device for use in the vehicle according to claim 3, wherein the magnitude of a transverse G is used as the driving characteristic of the right or left turn.

5. The information provision device for use in the vehicle according to claim 1, wherein a preceding vehicle approaching scene is detected as the specific driving scene and the feature amount is calculated from the driving characteristic of a decelerating operation at that time.

6. The information provision device for use in the vehicle according to claim 5, wherein the magnitude of a time to collision (TTC) at the time of braking is used as the driving characteristic of the decelerating operation.

7. The information provision device for use in the vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the second driving instability determining unit determines that the driving state is unstable when the calculated feature amount is greater than a predetermined threshold value for determination.

8. The information provision device for use in the vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the traveling state distribution is calculated based on an operation amount of steering operation.

9. The information provision device for use in the vehicle according to claim 8, wherein a steering entropy method is used in calculation based on the operation amount of steering operation.

10. The information provision device for use in the vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the second driving instability determining unit estimates the second driving instability using a time to collision (TTC).

11. The information provision device for use in the vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the information presenting unit changes the instability information to be presented depending on whether or not the learning is completed.