TRAVELING CONTROL APPARATUS, TRAVELING CONTROL METHOD, AND NON-TRANSITORY COMPUTER-READABLE STORAGE MEDIUM STORING PROGRAM

• US 20200133264A1
• Filed: 10/09/2019
• Published: 04/30/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 10/26/2018
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (Honda Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (Honda Motor Company)
• Inventors: MATSUNAGA, Hideki
• Granted Patent: US 11,262,751 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2040/0827 due to sleepiness
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2050/143 Alarm means
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2540/221 Physiology, e.g. weight, heartbeat, health or special needs
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2540/225 Direction of gaze
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 50/14 Means for informing the driver, warning the driver or prompting a driver intervention
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 60/0059 Estimation of the risk associated with autonomous or manual driving, e.g. situation too complex, sensor failure or driver incapacity
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0055 with safety arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/597 Recognising the driver's state or behaviour, e.g. attention or drowsiness

Abstract

A traveling control apparatus comprises: a control unit configured to control traveling of a vehicle to switch between first traveling control that does not need monitoring by a driver and second traveling control that needs monitoring by the driver; and a recognition unit configured to recognize a state of the driver, wherein in a case in which traveling of the vehicle by the first traveling control is impossible, in accordance with a result of recognition by the recognition unit, the control unit performs switching from the first traveling control to the second traveling control, or executes third traveling control of making a safety margin larger than in the first traveling control without switching from the first traveling control to the second traveling control.

Claims

1. A traveling control apparatus comprising:

a control unit configured to control traveling of a vehicle to switch between first traveling control that does not need monitoring by a driver and second traveling control that needs monitoring by the driver; and

a recognition unit configured to recognize a state of the driver,

wherein in a case in which traveling of the vehicle by the first traveling control is impossible, in accordance with a result of recognition by the recognition unit, the control unit performs switching from the first traveling control to the second traveling control, or executes third traveling control of making a safety margin larger than in the first traveling control without switching from the first traveling control to the second traveling control.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein in a case in which the recognition unit recognizes a non-awakening state of the driver, the control unit executes the third traveling control.

3. The apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the non-awakening state includes an asleep state of the driver.

4. The apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising an acceptance unit configured to accept a designation concerning whether to permit execution of the third traveling control.

5. The apparatus according to claim 4, wherein in a case in which traveling of the vehicle by the first traveling control is impossible, and the recognition unit recognizes that the driver is in an awakening state in which the driver can perform driving, the control unit performs switching from the first traveling control to the second traveling control, or executes the third traveling control in accordance with the designation accepted by the acceptance unit.

6. The apparatus according to claim 4, wherein if the acceptance unit accepts a designation to permit execution of the third traveling control in a case in which traveling of the vehicle by the first traveling control is impossible, and the recognition unit recognizes the non-awakening state of the driver, the control unit executes the third traveling control.

7. The apparatus according to claim 6, wherein if the acceptance unit accepts a designation not to permit execution of the third traveling control in the case in which traveling of the vehicle by the first traveling control is impossible, and the recognition unit recognizes the non-awakening state of the driver, the control unit stops the vehicle.

8. The apparatus according to claim 6, further comprising:

a warning unit configured to issue a warning to the driver in the non-awakening state if the acceptance unit accepts a designation not to permit execution of the third traveling control in the case in which traveling of the vehicle by the first traveling control is impossible, and the recognition unit recognizes the non-awakening state of the driver; and

a second recognition unit configured to recognize the state of the driver after the warning is issued by the warning unit,

wherein in a case in which the second recognition unit recognizes the non-awakening state of the driver, the control unit executes the third traveling control.

9. The apparatus according to claim 8, wherein in a case in which the second recognition unit recognizes that the driver is in an awakening state in which the driver can perform driving, the control unit performs switching from the first traveling control to the second traveling control.

10. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein traveling enable areas of the vehicle under the first traveling control and the third traveling control are determined in advance, and the case in which traveling of the vehicle by the first traveling control is impossible is a case in which it is judged that the vehicle leaves the traveling enable area.

11. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein when executing the third traveling control, the control unit increases a safety margin by the first traveling control based on at least one of a speed of the vehicle and a distance between vehicles.

12. A traveling control method executed in a traveling control apparatus, comprising:

controlling traveling of a vehicle to switch between first traveling control that does not need monitoring by a driver and second traveling control that needs monitoring by the driver; and

recognizing a state of the driver,

wherein in a case in which traveling of the vehicle by the first traveling control is impossible, in the controlling the traveling of the vehicle, in accordance with a result of recognition of the state of the driver, switching from the first traveling control to the second traveling control is performed, or third traveling control of making a safety margin larger than in the first traveling control is executed without switching from the first traveling control to the second traveling control.

13. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a program configured to cause a computer to operate to:

control traveling of a vehicle to switch between first traveling control that does not need monitoring by a driver and second traveling control that needs monitoring by the driver; and

recognize a state of the driver,

wherein in a case in which traveling of the vehicle by the first traveling control is impossible, in the control of the traveling of the vehicle, in accordance with a result of recognition of the state of the driver, switching from the first traveling control to the second traveling control is performed, or third traveling control of making a safety margin larger than in the first traveling control is executed without switching from the first traveling control to the second traveling control.