Vehicle and method for advising driver of same

• US 8,886,365 B2
• Filed: 10/30/2009
• Issued: 11/11/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 10/30/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Inventors: Filev, Dimitar Petrov, Lu, Jianbo, Prakah-Asante, Kwaku O., Tseng, Fling
• Primary Examiner(s): Khatib, Rami
• Application Number:
  US12/609,487
• Publication Number:
  US 20110106334A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,838 Days
• Field of Search: 701/1, 701/99, 701/117, 340/438, 340/439, 340/575, 340/576, 180/271, 180/272
• US Class Current: 701/1
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 1/50 for indicating other intentions or conditions, e.g. request for waiting or overtaking
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 9/00 Arrangement or adaptation of signal devices not provided for in one of main groups B60Q1/00 - B60Q7/00 , e.g. haptic signalling

Abstract

A method for advising a driver of a vehicle may include monitoring driver torque requests, establishing categories of driver behavior based on a history of driver torque requests and associated rates of change thereof, categorizing current driver behavior into one of the established categories based on current driver torque requests and associated rates of change thereof, and initiating an alert for the driver if the categorization is of a particular type.

Claims

1. A method for advising a driver of a vehicle comprising:

establishing, by at least one processing device, categories of driver behavior based on a history of driver torque requests and associated rates of change thereof;

categorizing current driver behavior into one of the established categories based on current driver torque requests and associated rates of change thereof; and

initiating a driver alert if the categorization is of a particular one of the established categories.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein establishing categories of driver behavior based on a history of driver torque requests and associated rates of change thereof includes defining category thresholds based on a mean and standard deviation of the history of driver torque requests and associated rates of change thereof.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein categorizing current driver behavior into one of the established categories based on current driver torque requests and associated rates of change thereof includes calculating a determinant of a covariance matrix of the current driver torque requests and associated rates of change thereof.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein categorizing current driver behavior into one of the established categories based on current driver torque requests and associated rates of change thereof further includes determining whether the determinant is greater than or less than at least one of the category thresholds.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the driver torque requests include at least one of positive torque requests and negative torque requests.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein categorizing current driver behavior into one of the established categories based on current driver torque requests and associated rates of change thereof is performed if vehicle speed is greater than a predefined threshold.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein categorizing current driver behavior into one of the established categories based on current driver torque requests and associated rates of change thereof is performed if accelerator pedal position is greater than a predefined threshold.