Impact mitigation by intelligent vehicle positioning
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A method of mitigating a vehicle collision comprising:
- sensing location, speed and direction of movement of an interfering vehicle entering a travel path of a host vehicle;
determining collision zones for the interfering vehicle including determining at least a side door compartment zone for the interfering vehicle;
determining whether a collision between the host vehicle and the interfering vehicle is imminent and unavoidable; and
when a collision between the host vehicle and the interfering vehicle is imminent and unavoidable, altering the travel path of the host vehicle to impact the interfering vehicle at one of the collision zones that is a potentially less severe collision zone.
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Abstract
A method and system for mitigating the impact of a vehicle collision senses location, speed, orientation, and direction of movement data of a host vehicle and an interfering vehicle that has moved or is moving into the path of the host vehicle. A control unit analyzes the data and determines whether a collision is unavoidable. If so, the control unit determines a vehicle path for the host vehicle that will minimize the effects of the collision. By changing the vehicle path, the impact of the collision is less direct and the effect on both of the vehicles is mitigated to some degree.
28 Citations
12 Claims
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1. A method of mitigating a vehicle collision comprising:
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sensing location, speed and direction of movement of an interfering vehicle entering a travel path of a host vehicle; determining collision zones for the interfering vehicle including determining at least a side door compartment zone for the interfering vehicle; determining whether a collision between the host vehicle and the interfering vehicle is imminent and unavoidable; and when a collision between the host vehicle and the interfering vehicle is imminent and unavoidable, altering the travel path of the host vehicle to impact the interfering vehicle at one of the collision zones that is a potentially less severe collision zone. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A method of mitigating a vehicle collision comprising:
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sensing location, speed and direction of movement of an interfering vehicle entering a travel path of a host vehicle; obtaining location, speed and direction data for the host vehicle; determining at least a rear tire zone, a front tire zone, and a side door compartment zone as collision zones for the interfering vehicle; determining whether a collision between the host vehicle and the interfering vehicle is imminent and unavoidable including predicting future locations and orientations of the host vehicle and the interfering vehicle; and when a collision between the host vehicle and the interfering vehicle is imminent and unavoidable, altering the travel path of the host vehicle to avoid or minimize a collision with the side door compartment zone of the interfering vehicle and to collide with one of the rear tire zone and the front tire zone of the interfering vehicle. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12)
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Specification