TRAVELING CONTROL DEVICE, ON-VEHICLE DISPLAY DEVICE, AND TRAVELING CONTROL SYSTEM

• US 20170113686A1
• Filed: 03/27/2015
• Published: 04/27/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 04/09/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hitachi Astemo Ltd. (Hitachi, Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Hitachi Automotive Systems Limited (Hitachi, Ltd.)
• Inventors: HORITA, Yuki, TANIMICHI, Taisetsu, OSAFUNE, Tatsuaki
• Granted Patent: US 10,166,981 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 10/04 including control of propulsion units
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 10/18 including control of braking systems
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 10/20 including control of steering systems
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2050/0016 State machine analysis
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2050/0095 Automatic control mode change
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2050/143 Alarm means
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2050/146 Display means
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2420/408 Radar; Laser, e.g. lidar
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2520/06 Direction of travel
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2520/10 Longitudinal speed
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2552/05 Type of road, e.g. motorways, local streets, paved or unpaved roads
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2554/00 Input parameters relating to objects
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2554/20 Static objects
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2554/4026 Cycles
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2554/4029 Pedestrians
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2554/4041 Position
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2554/80 Spatial relation or speed relative to objects
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2555/60 Traffic rules, e.g. speed limits or right of way
• 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 2710/18 : Braking system
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2710/20 : Steering systems
• 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 30/09 : Taking automatic action to avoid collision, e.g. braking and steering
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/0956 : the prediction being responsive to traffic or environmental parameters
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/12 : Lane keeping
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/16 : Control of distance between vehicles, e.g. keeping a distance to preceding vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/18154 : Approaching an intersection
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/18163 : Lane change; Overtaking manoeuvres
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 40/04 : Traffic conditions
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 40/06 : Road conditions
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 50/14 : Means for informing the driver, warning the driver or prompting a driver intervention
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 60/0013 : specially adapted for occupant comfort
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0219 : ensuring the processing of the whole working surface
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0238 : using obstacle or wall sensors G05D1/0246 and G05D1/0289 take precedence; lidar systems designed for anti-collision purposes G01S17/93
• 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

Abstract

A traveling control system capable of reducing uneasiness felt by an occupant in automatic traveling control of a vehicle includes an on-vehicle control device which performs traveling control on the vehicle, and a display device that is connected to the on-vehicle control device and presents information to an occupant through screen display or audio output. The on-vehicle control device acquires externality recognition information recognized by an externality sensor and/or out-of-vehicle communication, decides driving behavior content to be taken by the vehicle based on the externality recognition information, specifies a driving behavior cause which is a reason why the driving behavior content is decided, and outputs the driving behavior content and the specified driving behavior cause. The display device acquires the driving behavior content and cause output by the control device and sends a notification of the driving behavior content and cause through screen display or audio output.

Claims

1. A traveling control device that is mounted on a vehicle and performs traveling control on the vehicle, the traveling control device comprising:

an externality recognition information acquisition unit that receives externality recognition information from an externality sensor ascertaining target objects outside the self-vehicle including an obstacle and another vehicle on a route or receives information from a road side through out-of-vehicle communication to acquire the externality recognition information;

a driving behavior decision unit that decides driving behavior content to be taken by the self-vehicle based on the externality recognition information received from the externality recognition information acquisition unit and self-vehicle information which is information including a position and a traveling speed of the self-vehicle;

a driving behavior cause specifying unit that specifies a driving behavior cause as a reason why the driving behavior content received from the driving behavior decision unit is decided; and

a driving behavior information output unit that outputs the driving behavior content and the driving behavior cause specified in regard to the driving behavior content.

2. The traveling control device according to claim 1, further comprising:

a driving behavior cause target object information extraction unit that extracts information regarding a cause target object which is a target object included in the external recognition information and becomes the driving behavior cause from the externality recognition information associated with the driving behavior cause,

wherein the driving behavior information output unit performs outputting of information including information regarding the cause target object.

3. The traveling control device according to claim 1, further comprising:

a traveling control content decision unit that decides traveling control content of the vehicle based on a driving behavior decided by the driving behavior decision unit;

a traveling control cause specifying unit that specifies a traveling control cause as a reason why the traveling control content is decided; and

a traveling control information output unit that outputs the traveling control content and the specified traveling control cause.

4. The traveling control device according to claim 3, further comprising:

a traveling control cause target object information extraction unit that extracts information regarding a cause target object which is a target object included in the external recognition information and constitutes the traveling behavior cause from the externality recognition information associated with the driving behavior cause,

wherein the traveling control information output unit performs outputting of information including information regarding the traveling control cause target object.

5. The traveling control device according to claim 3, further comprising:

a traveling control discomfort determination unit that determines whether the traveling control gives discomfort to an occupant of the vehicle in regard to a combination of the traveling control content and the traveling control cause or a combination of the driving behavior and the traveling control cause.

6. The traveling control device according to claim 5, further comprising:

control discomfort pattern information in which information regarding the combination of the traveling control content and the traveling control cause which is likely to give the discomfort to the occupant of the vehicle is recorded,

wherein the traveling control discomfort determination unit refers to the control discomfort pattern information to determine whether the traveling control gives the discomfort to the occupant of the vehicle.

7. The traveling control device according to claim 5,

wherein in a case in which a change in the traveling control content is detected, the traveling control discomfort determination unit determines traveling control discomfort according to a type of an acquisition source of the externality recognition information associated with the traveling control cause which is a change cause of the traveling control content.

8. The traveling control device according to claim 5,

wherein in a case in which a change in the traveling control content is not detected, the traveling control discomfort determination unit determines the traveling control discomfort according to a change in the externality recognition information selected because the change is determined to possibly make the occupant feel the discomfort.

9. The traveling control device according to claim 5,

wherein a discomfort index in which the discomfort felt by the occupant is indexed is retained in association with the combination of the traveling control content and the traveling control cause, an output determination threshold which is a standard value regarding whether to output information based on the discomfort is set in the discomfort index, and the traveling control discomfort determination unit causes the traveling control information output unit to output the traveling control content and the specified traveling control cause in a case in which the traveling control discomfort determination unit determines that the discomfort index exceeds the threshold.

10. An on-vehicle display device that is mounted on a vehicle and presents information to an occupant of the vehicle, the on-vehicle display device comprising:

a driving behavior information acquisition unit that acquires driving behavior information which is information deciding traveling control content of the vehicle and indicating a driving behavior of the vehicle and includes information regarding a kind of selected driving behavior and a cause to select the driving behavior; and

a driving behavior information output unit that includes at least one of a display unit displaying the driving behavior information and an audio output unit outputting content of the driving behavior information through sound and presents the kind of driving behavior included in the driving behavior information along with a driving behavior cause.

11. The on-vehicle display device according to claim 10,

wherein the driving behavior information includes driving behavior cause target object information regarding a target object associated with the driving behavior cause, and

wherein the driving behavior information output unit also outputs information regarding the target object related to the driving behavior cause.

12. The on-vehicle display device according to claim 10,

wherein traveling control information which is information indicating traveling control content decided based on a driving behavior related to the driving behavior information is associated with a traveling control cause which is a cause of the traveling control information, and

wherein the driving behavior information output unit also outputs information regarding the traveling control cause.

13. The on-vehicle display device according to claim 12,

wherein information regarding a target object to be a cause of the traveling control is associated with the traveling control cause, and

wherein the driving behavior information output unit also outputs information regarding the target object related to the traveling control cause.

14. The on-vehicle display device according to claim 10,

wherein the driving behavior information output unit suppresses the output of the driving behavior information in a case in which the number of outputs of the driving behavior information is determined to exceed a predetermined number.

15. A traveling control system that is mounted on a vehicle and performs traveling control on the vehicle, the traveling control system comprising:

an externality recognition information acquisition unit that receives externality recognition information including information from an externality sensor ascertaining objects outside a self-vehicle including an obstacle and another vehicle on a route or information including information regarding whether to travel the route and traveling speed limitation from a road side through out-of-vehicle communication;

a driving behavior decision unit that decides driving behavior content to be taken by the self-vehicle based on the externality recognition information received from the externality recognition information acquisition unit and self-vehicle information which is information including a position and a traveling speed of the self-vehicle;

a driving behavior cause specifying unit that specifies a driving behavior cause which is determined to be a reason why the driving behavior content received from the driving behavior decision unit is decided;

a driving behavior information acquisition unit that acquires driving behavior information which is information deciding traveling control content of the vehicle and indicating a driving behavior of the vehicle and includes information regarding a kind of selected driving behavior and a cause to select the driving behavior; and

a driving behavior information output unit that includes at least one of a display unit displaying the driving behavior information and an audio output unit outputting content of the driving behavior information through sound and presents the kind of driving behavior included in the driving behavior information along with a driving behavior cause.