Tire condition notification apparatus

• US 7,693,627 B2
• Filed: 01/10/2008
• Issued: 04/06/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 01/15/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Original Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Inventors: Natsume, Wataru
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran; Khoi
• Assistant Examiner(s): SAMPLE, JONATHAN L
• Application Number:
  US12/007,393
• Publication Number:
  US 20080172151A1
• Time in Patent Office: 817 Days
• Field of Search: 701/30
• US Class Current: 701/30
• CPC Class Codes: G01M 17/02 Tyres

Abstract

A tire steer condition detection and notification apparatus calculates a tire steer angle based on a steering wheel operation when a parked condition of a vehicle is detected, and provides a notification (i.e., warning) regarding a tire steer condition when the tire steer angle is equal to or greater than a predetermined angle. Further, when the vehicle is determined to be in the parked condition and has a predicted travel course diverted away from a road shape based on the tire steer angle at the time, the tire steer condition detection apparatus provides a notification (i.e., warning) regarding the tire steer condition.

Claims

1. A tire condition notification apparatus comprising:

a current position detector that detects a current position of a vehicle;

a stop condition detector that detects that the vehicle is in a stopped condition based on a detection of a vehicle speed;

a storage that stores road data;

a tire steer condition detector that detects a tire steer condition of the vehicle based on an amount of steering operation of a steering wheel by a user; and

a notifier that provides a notification of the tire steer condition, wherein, when the stopped condition of the vehicle is detected by the stop condition detector, the notifier determines whether the tire steer condition is in a predetermined unsafe condition, and wherein the notifier provides the notification of the tire steer condition upon determining that the tire steer condition is in the predetermined unsafe condition.

2. The apparatus of claim 1,

wherein the notifier acquires a road shape based on the road data of the detected current position of the vehicle,

the notifier predicts a predicted course of the vehicle from the current position based on the detected tire steer condition, and

the notifier provides for the user the notification of the tire steer condition upon determining that the tire steer condition is in the predetermined unsafe condition based on the road shape and the predicted course fulfilling a predetermined relationship.

3. The apparatus of claim 2,

wherein the predetermined relationship indicates that a curvature radius of the predicted course has a diversion range diverts from a curvature radius of the road shape at least by a predetermined value.

4. The apparatus of claim 3,

wherein the predetermined value of the diversion range is determined in proportion to the curvature radius of the road shape.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising:

a turn signal operation detector that determines a turn signal is in operation for indicating a turn direction that agrees with the predicted course,

wherein, when the turn signal operation detector is in operation for indicating a turn direction that agrees with the predicted course, the notifier does not provide the notification of the tire steer condition.

6. The apparatus of claim 1,

wherein the tire steer condition is detected as a tire steer angle from a tire condition that has a tire rotation axis put substantially perpendicularly to a front-rear direction of the vehicle.

7. The apparatus of claim 6,

wherein the tire steer condition detector calculates and acquires the tire steer angle based on a play in the steering operation of the steering wheel.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein

a camera for acquiring a road image is provided in place of the storage, and

the road shape calculated based on the road image is used as the road data.

9. The apparatus of claim 2 further comprising:

a turn signal operation detector that determines a turn signal is in operation for indicating a turn direction that agrees with the predicted course,

wherein, when the turn signal operation detector is in operation for indicating a turn direction that agrees with the predicted course, the notifier does not provide the notification of the tire steer condition.

10. The apparatus of claim 3 further comprising:

a turn signal operation detector that determines a turn signal is in operation for indicating a turn direction that agrees with the predicted course,

wherein, when the turn signal operation detector is in operation for indicating a turn direction that agrees with the predicted course, the notifier does not provide the notification of the tire steer condition.

11. The apparatus of claim 4 further comprising:

a turn signal operation detector that determines a turn signal is in operation for indicating a turn direction that agrees with the predicted course,

wherein, when the turn signal operation detector is in operation for indicating a turn direction that agrees with the predicted course, the notifier does not provide the notification of the tire steer condition.

12. The apparatus of claim 2,

wherein the tire steer condition is detected as a tire steer angle from a tire condition that has a tire rotation axis put substantially perpendicularly to a front-rear direction of the vehicle.

13. The apparatus of claim 3,

wherein the tire steer condition is detected as a tire steer angle from a tire condition that has a tire rotation axis put substantially perpendicularly to a front-rear direction of the vehicle.

14. The apparatus of claim 4,

wherein the tire steer condition is detected as a tire steer angle from a tire condition that has a tire rotation axis put substantially perpendicularly to a front-rear direction of the vehicle.

15. The apparatus of claim 5,

wherein the tire steer condition is detected as a tire steer angle from a tire condition that has a tire rotation axis put substantially perpendicularly to a front-rear direction of the vehicle.

16. The apparatus of claim 9,

wherein the tire steer condition is detected as a tire steer angle from a tire condition that has a tire rotation axis put substantially perpendicularly to a front-rear direction of the vehicle.

17. The apparatus of claim 10,

wherein the tire steer condition is detected as a tire steer angle from a tire condition that has a tire rotation axis put substantially perpendicularly to a front-rear direction of the vehicle.

18. The apparatus of claim 11,

wherein the tire steer condition is detected as a tire steer angle from a tire condition that has a tire rotation axis put substantially perpendicularly to a front-rear direction of the vehicle.