Vehicle with identification system

• US 9,707,974 B2
• Filed: 10/30/2009
• Issued: 07/18/2017
• 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: Lu, Jianbo, Filev, Dimitar Petrov, Prakah-Asante, Kwaku O., Tseng, Fling
• Primary Examiner(s): Black, Thomas G
• Assistant Examiner(s): SMITH-STEWART, DEMETRA R
• Application Number:
  US13/500,017
• Publication Number:
  US 20120203399A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,818 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2520/10 Longitudinal speed
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2540/043 Identity of occupants
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2540/106 Rate of change
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2540/30 Driving style
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2552/20 Road profile, i.e. the change in elevation or curvature of a plurality of continuous road segments
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2552/30 Road curve radius
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2556/10 Historical data
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2720/106 Longitudinal acceleration
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/02 Control of vehicle driving stability
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/18145 Cornering
• 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: G09B 19/167 Control of land vehicles

Abstract

A vehicle may include an identification system configured to acquire information from a token in a vicinity of the vehicle and to classify a driver of the vehicle based on the information. The vehicle may also include at least one controller in communication with the identification system and configured to characterize a driver'"'"'s control of the vehicle and to record a history of the characterization if the driver classification is of a particular type.

Claims

1. A vehicle comprising:

an identification system disposed within the vehicle and configured to acquire information from a token in a vicinity of the vehicle and to classify by type a driver of the vehicle based on the information;

a sensor arrangement disposed within the vehicle and configured to measure a plurality of parameters representing the vehicle'"'"'s current handling condition and the vehicle'"'"'s limit handling condition; and

at least one controller in communication with the identification system and sensor arrangement, and configured to determine a margin between the vehicle'"'"'s current handling condition and limit handling condition and to record a history of the margin in response to the driver classification being of a predefined type.

2. The vehicle of claim 1 wherein the at least one controller is further configured to characterize the driver'"'"'s dynamic control of the vehicle based on the margin and record a history of the characterization.

3. The vehicle of claim 2 wherein characterizing the driver'"'"'s dynamic control of the vehicle based on the margin includes determining a duration of time during which the margin falls within a predetermined range and recording a history of the duration of time during which the margin falls within predetermined range.

4. The vehicle of claim 1 further comprising an interface configured to provide access to the recorded history of the margin.

5. The vehicle of claim 1 wherein the identification system is configured to acquire information from at least one of a radio frequency identification chip and a cell phone.

6. A vehicle comprising:

an identification system disposed within the vehicle and configured to acquire information from a token in a vicinity of the vehicle and to classify by type a driver of the vehicle based on the information; and

at least one controller in communication with the identification system and configured to establish categories of driver behavior based on a history of driver torque requests and associated rates of change thereof, to categorize current driver behavior into one of the established categories based on current driver torque requests and associated rates of change thereof, and to record a history of the categorization in response to the driver classification being of a predefined type.

7. The vehicle of claim 6 further comprising an interface configured to provide access to the recorded history of the categorization.

8. The vehicle of claim 6 wherein the identification system is configured to acquire information from at least one of a radio frequency identification chip and a cell phone.

9. The vehicle of claim 6 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.

10. A vehicle comprising:

an accelerator pedal having a position;

a brake pedal having a position;

an identification system disposed within the vehicle and configured to acquire information from a token in a vicinity of the vehicle and to classify by type a driver of the vehicle based on the information; and

at least one controller configured to determine a gap time between the vehicle and another vehicle, to determine a variability of a rate of change of at least one of the accelerator and brake pedal positions, to characterize a driver'"'"'s longitudinal control of the vehicle based on the gap time and variability of the rate of change, and to record a history of the characterization in response to the driver classification being of a predefined type.

11. The vehicle of claim 10 further comprising a forward sensing system configured to detect a distance between the vehicles.

12. The vehicle of claim 11 wherein determining a gap time between the vehicle and another vehicle is based on the distance between the vehicles and a speed of the vehicle.

13. The vehicle of claim 10 wherein characterizing a driver'"'"'s longitudinal control of the vehicle based on the gap time and the variability of the rate of change includes generating a driver index via a rule based evaluation of the classifications of the gap time and the variability of the rate of change.

14. The vehicle of claim 13 wherein a value of the driver index represents a type of longitudinal control of the vehicle.

15. The vehicle of claim 10 further comprising an interface configured to provide access to the recorded history of the characterization.

16. The vehicle of claim 10 wherein the identification system is configured to acquire information from at least one of a radio frequency identification chip and a cell phone.

17. A vehicle comprising:

an identification system disposed within the vehicle and configured to acquire information from a token in a vicinity of the vehicle and to classify by type a driver of the vehicle based on the information; and

at least one controller in communication with the identification system and configured to characterize a driver'"'"'s longitudinal control of the vehicle based on a distance and relative speed between the vehicle and another vehicle and a longitudinal acceleration of the vehicle, and to record a history of the characterization in response to the driver classification being of a predefined type.

18. The vehicle of claim 17 further comprising an interface configured to provide access to the recorded history of the characterization.

19. The vehicle of claim 17 wherein the identification system is configured to acquire information from at least one of a radio frequency identification chip and a cell phone.

20. The vehicle of claim 17 wherein characterizing a driver'"'"'s longitudinal control of the vehicle based on the distance and relative speed between the vehicles and the longitudinal acceleration of the vehicle includes determining a driver'"'"'s response time to changes in the distance between the vehicles.