Vehicle control system and recording media recorded with programs for the system

• US 6,292,736 B1
• Filed: 08/06/1998
• Issued: 09/18/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 08/08/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Aisin AW Company Limited (Aisin Corp.), Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Aisin AW Company Limited (Aisin Corp.), Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Inventors: Hamada, Takeo, Ota, Takashi, Iwatsuki, Kunihiro, Shiimado, Toshihiro, Aruga, Hideki
• Primary Examiner(s): Cuchlinski, Jr., William A.
• Assistant Examiner(s): ARTHUR JEANGLAUDE, GERTRUDE
• Application Number:
  US09/130,000
• Time in Patent Office: 1,139 Days
• Field of Search: 701/93, 701/95, 701/207, 701/209, 701/201, 701/210, 701/214, 701/51, 701/25, 701/52, 701/216, 477/154, 340/988
• US Class Current: 701/95
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2556/50 of positioning data, e.g. GPS [Global Positioning System] data
• CPC Class Codes: F16H 2059/666 Determining road conditions by using vehicle location or position, e.g. from global navigation systems [GPS]
• CPC Class Codes: F16H 59/24 dependent on the throttle opening
• CPC Class Codes: F16H 59/44 dependent on machine speed of the machine, e.g. the vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: F16H 59/58 dependent on signals from the steering
• CPC Class Codes: F16H 59/66 Road conditions, e.g. slope, slippery
• CPC Class Codes: F16H 61/0213 characterised by the method for generating shift signals

Abstract

A vehicle control system comprising a vehicle speed sensor for detecting the speed of a vehicle; a road situation storage device for storing road structures and conditions; a recommended gear stage determining device for determining a recommended gear stage of an automatic transmission on the basis of the vehicle speed and the road structures and conditions; a present position detecting device for detecting the present position of the vehicle; a present position recognizing device for recognizing the present position of the vehicle, as detected by the present position detecting device; a control content selecting device for evaluating at least one of the present position detecting device and the present position recognizing device to select the control content on the basis of the evaluation result; and a speed change processing device for changing the speed in accordance with the control content selected by the control content selecting device.

Claims

1. A vehicle control system comprising:

a vehicle speed sensor for detecting a vehicle'"'"'s speed;

road situation storage means for storing road structures and conditions;

recommended gear stage determining means for determining a recommended gear stage of an automatic transmission based on the vehicle'"'"'s speed and the road structures and conditions;

present position detecting means for detecting a present position of the vehicle;

present position recognizing means for recognizing the present position of the vehicle, as detected by said present position detecting means;

control content selecting means for evaluating at least one of said present position detecting means and said present position recognizing means to select a control content based on the evaluation result; and

speed change processing means for changing the vehicle'"'"'s speed in accordance with the control content selected by said control content selecting means.

2. The vehicle control system according to claim 1, wherein said control content selecting means includes evaluating means for evaluating at least one of said present position detecting means and said present position recognizing means based on both the present position of the vehicle recognized by said present position recognizing means and the road structures and conditions read out from said road situation storage means, and wherein the control content to inhibit a corner control is set based on the evaluation result by said evaluating means whereas an upper limit gear stage is set based on the recommended gear stage determined by said recommended gear stage determining means, thereby to select the control content in which said upper limit gear stage is fed to said speed change processing means.

3. A recording medium stored with programs, comprising:

a program for determining a recommended gear stage of an automatic transmission based on a vehicle speed and road structures and conditions;

a program for detecting the present position of the vehicle;

a program for recognizing said present position;

a program for evaluating at least one of present position detecting means and present position recognizing means based on the recognized present position and the road structures and conditions; and

a program for selecting a control content based on the evaluation.