Driving diagnosis information providing apparatus and system

• US 8,872,644 B2
• Filed: 07/27/2009
• Issued: 10/28/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 08/01/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: DENSO Corporation, Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Original Assignee: DENSO Corporation, Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Inventors: Tauchi, Nobutaka, Yamaoka, Kousuke, Takeuchi, Shojiro
• Primary Examiner(s): Phan, Hai
• Assistant Examiner(s): Bousono, Orlando
• Application Number:
  US13/002,054
• Publication Number:
  US 20110140874A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,919 Days
• Field of Search: 340/425.5, 340438-442, 701/29, 701 291- 344
• US Class Current: 340/438
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 2360/174 Economic driving
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 35/28 characterised by the type of the output information, e.g. video entertainment or vehicle dynamics information; characterised by the purpose of the output information, e.g. for attracting the attention of the driver
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2050/146 Display means
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2530/18 Distance travelled
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2556/50 of positioning data, e.g. GPS [Global Positioning System] data
• 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: G01C 21/26 specially adapted for navigation in a road network
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/20 Monitoring the location of vehicles belonging to a group, e.g. fleet of vehicles, countable or determined number of vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/84 Data processing systems or methods, management, administration

Abstract

A driving diagnosis information providing apparatus for a vehicle is disclosed. The driving diagnosis information providing apparatus acquires vehicle information indicative of a vehicle state, and makes a diagnosis of a driving state of the vehicle based on the vehicle information. The driving diagnosis information providing apparatus acquires, as useful information, one of announce information and helpful information. The announce information includes information to be reported to a driver of the vehicle. The helpful information includes information helpful for driving. The driving diagnosis information providing apparatus notifies the driver of diagnosis information indicative of a result of the diagnosis, and notifies the useful information in place of the diagnosis information under a predetermined condition.

Claims

1. A driving diagnosis information providing apparatus for a vehicle, comprising:

a vehicle information acquisition section that is configured to acquire vehicle information indicative of a vehicle state;

a diagnosis section that is configured to successively make a diagnosis of a driving state of the vehicle based on the vehicle information indicative of the vehicle state in predetermined intervals, the vehicle information being acquired by the vehicle information acquisition section;

a useful information acquisition section that is configured to acquire, as useful information, at least one of announce information and helpful information, the announce information including information to be reported to a driver of the vehicle, the helpful information including information helpful for driving;

a notification section that is configured to successively notify the driver of diagnosis information indicative of a result of the diagnosis made by the diagnosis section, and that is configured to notify, within one predetermined interval for the diagnosis section to make the diagnosis for the next diagnosis information, the driver of the useful information in place of the previous diagnosis information; and

an advice generation section that is configured to generate advice as the diagnosis information, based on a result of the diagnosis made by the diagnosis section,

wherein

the useful information is based on data that is not indicative of the vehicle state,

the useful information is based on data that is not related to the area adjacent to the vehicle,

the result of the diagnosis made by the diagnosis section and which is indicated by the diagnosis information notified to the driver, is either a level of driving economy of the vehicle or a class of the driver'"'"'s skill,

the notification section initially notifies the driver of the advice having a first content each time when the vehicle makes a stop, if a number of times the notification section has notified the driver of the advice having the first content is less than a predetermined number of times; and

after the number of times the notification section has notified the driver of the advice having the first content reaches the predetermined number of times, the notification section notifies the driver of the useful information each time the vehicle makes a stop, until the advice generation unit generates the advice having a second content different from the first content.

2. The driving diagnosis information providing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:

the diagnosis section

(i) computes the driving state of the vehicle in each of the predetermined intervals,

(ii) compares the computed driving state in a diagnosis target interval to the computed driving state in a comparison target interval, the diagnosis target interval being one of the predetermined intervals and being a target for the diagnosis, the comparison target interval being another one of the predetermined intervals and being different from the diagnosis target interval, and

(iii) thereby makes the diagnosis of quality of the driving state in the diagnosis target interval;

the predetermined intervals include a first interval and a second interval after the first interval;

the notification section notifies the driver of the useful information at least prior to an end point of the second interval; and

the predetermined intervals are predetermined periods or predetermined traveling zones.

3. The driving diagnosis information providing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:

the notification of the advice made in a short stoppage period of the vehicle, the short stoppage period being shorter than a predetermined period, is excluded from counting the number of times.

4. The driving diagnosis information providing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:

if the vehicle starts traveling while the notification section is notifying the driver of one of the advice, the announce information and the helpful information, the notification section suspends the notification of the one of the advice, the announce information and the helpful information, and provides the suspended notification to the driver at a next stop of the vehicle.

5. The driving diagnosis information providing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a memory; and

a memory control section that records the announce information and the helpful information acquired by the useful information acquisition section in the memory,

wherein;

the notification section reads at least one of the announce information and the helpful information from the memory to notify the driver of the at least one of the announce information and the helpful information,

the announce information contains information for indicating whether the announce information is expired;

the helpful information contains information for indicating whether the helpful information is expired; and

the memory control section deletes the expired announce information and the expired helpful information from the memory.

6. The driving diagnosis information providing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:

the announce information includes a plurality of announce information with pre-assigned priorities;

the helpful information includes a plurality helpful information with pre-assigned priorities; and

the notification section notifies the driver of the plurality of announce information and the plurality of helpful information in order of descending priority based on the pre-assigned priorities.

7. The driving diagnosis information providing apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the useful information is received from a remote server.

8. A driving diagnosis information providing apparatus, as recited in claim 1,

wherein the useful information comprises at least one of:

accident information, traffic jam information, advertising information, and prestored driving knowledge that is based on the data that is not indicative of the vehicle state.

9. A driving diagnosis information providing system comprising:

an in-vehicle apparatus that is equipped in a vehicle;

a server that is communicable with the in-vehicle apparatus,

wherein the server includes

a useful information storing part that stores therein announce information and helpful information, the announce information including information to be reported to a driver, the helpful information including information helpful for driving,

wherein the in-vehicle apparatus includes;

a vehicle information acquisition section that is configured to acquire vehicle information indicative of a vehicle state;

a diagnosis section that is configured to successively make a diagnosis of a driving state of the vehicle based on the vehicle information indicative of the vehicle state in predetermined intervals, the vehicle information being acquired by the vehicle information acquisition section;

a useful information acquisition section that is configured to acquire at least one of the announce information and the helpful information as useful information from the server;

a notification section that is configured to successively notify a driver of diagnosis information indicative of a result of the diagnosis made by the diagnosis section, and that is configured to notify, within one predetermined interval for the diagnosis section to make the diagnosis for the next diagnosis information, the driver of the acquired one of the announce information and the helpful information in place of the diagnosis information; and

an advice generation section that is configured to generate advice as the diagnosis information, based on a result of the diagnosis made by the diagnosis section,

wherein

the announce information and the helpful information are both based on data that is not indicative of the vehicle state,

the announce information and the helpful information are both based on data that is not related to the area adjacent proximate to the vehicle,

the result of the diagnosis made by the diagnosis section and which is indicated by the diagnosis information notified to the driver, is either a level of driving economy of the vehicle or a class of the driver'"'"'s skill,

the notification section initially notifies the driver of the advice having a first content each time when the vehicle makes a stop, if a number of times the notification section has notified the driver of the advice having the first content is less than a predetermined number of times; and

after the number of times the notification section has notified the driver of the advice having the first content reaches the predetermined number of times, the notification section notifies the driver of the useful information each time the vehicle makes a stop, until the advice generation unit generates the advice having a second content different from the first content.

10. A driving diagnosis information providing system, as recited in claim 9,

wherein the announce information comprises at least one of:

accident information, traffic jam information, and advertising information.

11. A driving diagnosis information providing system, as recited in claim 9,

wherein the helpful information comprises prestored driving knowledge that is based on the data that is not indicative of the vehicle state.