Smart road system for vehicles

• US 9,729,636 B2
• Filed: 07/31/2015
• Issued: 08/08/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 08/01/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Magna Electronics Incorporated (Magna International Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Magna Electronics Incorporated (Magna International Incorporated)
• Inventors: Koravadi, Krishna, VanOphem, Paul A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Figueroa, Jaime
• Application Number:
  US14/814,882
• Publication Number:
  US 20160036917A1
• Time in Patent Office: 739 Days
• Field of Search: 701 1, 701 2
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/12 Inductive energy transfer
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3415 Dynamic re-routing, e.g. recalculating the route when the user deviates from calculated route or after detecting real-time traffic data or accidents
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0022 characterised by the communication link data switching networks in general H04L12/00
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0027 involving a plurality of vehicles, e.g. fleet or convoy travelling fleet control of land vehicles from a control room G05D1/0297; traffic control systems for road vehicles G08G1/00; for marine craft G08G3/00; for aircraft G08G5/00
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0276 using signals provided by a source external to the vehicle involving a plurality of vehicles G05D1/0287; automatically controlling vehicle speed responsive to externally generated signals B60K31/0058
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0125 Traffic data processing
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0141 for traffic information dissemination
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/02 using treadles built into the road pads or other sensitive devices responsive to passage of vehicles E01F11/00
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096708 where the received information might be used to generate an automatic action on the vehicle control
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096783 where the origin of the information is a roadside individual element
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/164 Centralised systems, e.g. external to vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/40 for vehicles, e.g. vehicle-to-pedestrians [V2P]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/44 for communication between vehicles and infrastructures, e.g. vehicle-to-cloud [V2C] or vehicle-to-home [V2H]
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/70 Energy storage systems for electromobility, e.g. batteries
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/7072 Electromobility specific charging systems or methods for batteries, ultracapacitors, supercapacitors or double-layer capacitors
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 90/12 Electric charging stations
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 90/14 Plug-in electric vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 90/16 Information or communication technologies improving the operation of electric vehicles

Abstract

A communication system for vehicles includes a plurality of communication devices integrated into a road. The communication devices are operable to wirelessly communicate with communication systems of vehicles traveling on the road. The communication devices may be electrically powered by solar power. The communication devices wirelessly communicate with a remote server of the communication system. The remote server receives information via the communication devices pertaining to the vehicles traveling on the road and, responsive at least in part to the received information, the remote server communicates information to the vehicles traveling on the road via the communication devices.

Claims

1. A communication system for vehicles, said communication system comprising:

a plurality of communication devices at respective geographic locations along the road;

wherein said communication devices are operable to wirelessly communicate with communication systems of vehicles traveling on the road;

wherein said communication devices of the road communicate lane boundary information to the vehicles traveling on the road, and wherein, when a vehicle receiving the communicated lane boundary information is moving out of a lane into an adjacent lane that is occupied by another vehicle, an alert at that vehicle is generated to alert a driver of that vehicle; and

wherein said communication devices of the road communicate location information to the vehicles traveling on the road pertaining to the respective geographical locations of said communication devices, and wherein the location information is communicated at least during situations where GPS satellite reception at the vehicles is lost or interrupted.

2. The communication system of claim 1, comprising a charging device disposed at the road for charging a battery of an electric vehicle traveling on the road, and wherein, responsive to a communication indicative of an electric vehicle traveling on the road, said charging device charges the battery of the electric vehicle as the electric vehicle travels on the road.

3. The communication system of claim 1, wherein, responsive to a communication from an autonomous vehicle traveling on the road, said system communicates signals to an automated driving system of the autonomous vehicle to control the autonomous vehicle as it travels on the road.

4. The communication system of claim 3, wherein said communication devices wirelessly communicate with a remote server of said communication system, and wherein said remote server receives information via said communication devices pertaining to the vehicles traveling on the road and, responsive at least in part to the received information, said remote server communicates information to the vehicles traveling on the road, and wherein the communication from the autonomous vehicle includes information about a destination location and route that is entered for the autonomous vehicle to follow, and wherein, responsive to the communication from the autonomous vehicle, said remote server, which has environment information and road information pertaining to the destination location and route, transmits commands to the autonomous vehicle to control the autonomous vehicle from its current geographical location along the route and to the destination location.

5. The communication system of claim 4, wherein, responsive to information pertaining to at least one of (i) traffic condition information and (ii) weather information, said remote server is operable to adjust the route.

6. The communication system of claim 1, wherein, responsive to a hazardous condition of the vehicle traveling on the road, said system communicates signals to a vehicle control system of the vehicle to control at least one of the throttle of the vehicle, the brakes of the vehicle and the steering of the vehicle as the vehicle travels on the road.

7. The communication system of claim 1, comprising a plurality of sensors disposed along the road for determining lane positions of vehicles traveling on the road, wherein said communication system communicates with vehicle-based systems of the vehicles traveling on the road to provide lane position information to the vehicles traveling on the road.

8. The communication system of claim 1, wherein said communication devices comprise a plurality of receivers that receive communications from vehicles traveling on the road.

9. The communication system of claim 8, wherein the vehicle communications are substantially continuously transmitted by a vehicle communication system and wherein the vehicle communication identifies the particular vehicle traveling on the road.

10. The communication system of claim 8, wherein the vehicle communications communicate information pertaining to at least one of (i) sensors of the vehicle, (ii) actuators of the vehicle and (iii) driver intent information of the driver of the vehicle.

11. The communication system of claim 1, wherein said communication devices wirelessly communicate with a remote server of said communication system, and wherein said remote server receives information via said communication devices pertaining to the vehicles traveling on the road and, responsive at least in part to the received information, said remote server communicates information to the vehicles traveling on the road, and wherein the information received by said remote server includes driver intent information pertaining to the driver of one of the vehicles traveling on the road, and wherein, responsive to the driver intent information, said remote server communicates information pertaining to the driver intent information to other vehicles in the vicinity of the one of the vehicle traveling on the road.

12. The communication system of claim 11, wherein the driver intent information is input to driver assistance systems of the other vehicles.

13. The communication system of claim 1, wherein said communication devices of the road communicate information to a vehicle traveling on the road pertaining to a destination location and route for the vehicle to supplement the vehicle-based GPS system when the GPS satellite reception at the vehicle is lost or interrupted.

14. The communication system of claim 1, wherein said communication devices of the road communicate lane boundary information to the vehicle traveling on the road irrespective of image data captured by a camera of the vehicle.

15. A communication system for vehicles, said communication system comprising:

a plurality of sensors integrated into a road for sensing vehicles traveling on the road;

a plurality of communication devices at respective geographic locations along the road;

wherein said communication devices comprise a plurality of receivers that receive communications from vehicles traveling on the road;

wherein said communication devices are operable to wirelessly communicate with communication systems of vehicles traveling on the road;

wherein, responsive to a hazardous condition of a vehicle traveling on the road, said system communicates signals to a vehicle control system of the vehicle to control at least one of the throttle of the vehicle, the brakes of the vehicle and the steering of the vehicle as the vehicle travels on the road;

wherein said communication devices of the road communicate lane boundary information to the vehicles traveling on the road, and wherein, when a vehicle receiving the communicated lane boundary information is moving out of a lane into an adjacent lane that is occupied by another vehicle, an alert at that vehicle is generated to alert a driver of that vehicle; and

wherein said communication devices of the road communicate location information to the vehicles traveling on the road pertaining to the respective geographical locations of said communication devices, and wherein the location information is communicated at least during situations where GPS satellite reception at the vehicles is lost or interrupted.

16. The communication system of claim 15, comprising a charging device disposed at the road for charging a battery of an electric vehicle traveling on the road, and wherein, responsive to a communication indicative of an electric vehicle traveling on the road, said charging device charges the battery of the electric vehicle as the electric vehicle travels on the road.

17. The communication system of claim 15, wherein said communication devices wirelessly communicate with a remote server of said communication system, and wherein said remote server receives information via said communication devices pertaining to the vehicles traveling on the road and, responsive at least in part to the received information, said remote server communicates information to the vehicles traveling on the road, wherein the information received by said remote server includes driver intent information pertaining to the driver of one of the vehicles traveling on the road, and wherein, responsive to the driver intent information, said remote server communicates information pertaining to the driver intent information to other vehicles in the vicinity of the one of the vehicle traveling on the road.

18. A communication system for vehicles, said communication system comprising:

a plurality of sensors integrated into a road for sensing vehicles traveling on the road;

a plurality of communication devices at respective geographic locations along the road;

wherein said communication devices comprise a plurality of receivers that receive communications from vehicles traveling on the road;

wherein said communication devices are operable to wirelessly communicate with communication systems of vehicles traveling on the road;

wherein said communication devices wirelessly communicate with a remote server of said communication system;

wherein said remote server receives information via said communication devices pertaining to the vehicles traveling on the road and, responsive at least in part to the received information, said remote server communicates information to the vehicles traveling on the road;

wherein said communication devices of the road communicate location information to the vehicles traveling on the road pertaining to the respective geographical locations of said communication devices, and wherein the location information is communicated at least during situations where GPS satellite reception at the vehicles is lost or interrupted;

wherein said communication devices of the road communicate location information to the vehicle traveling on the road pertaining to a destination location and route for the vehicle, and wherein the information is communicated at least during situations where a GPS satellite reception at the vehicle is lost or interrupted;

wherein said communication devices of the road communicate lane boundary information to the vehicles traveling on the road, and wherein, when a vehicle receiving the communicated lane boundary information is moving out of a lane into an adjacent lane that is occupied by another vehicle, an alert at that vehicle is generated to alert a driver of that vehicle; and

wherein said communication devices of the road communicate lane boundary information to the vehicle traveling on the road irrespective of image data captured by a camera of the vehicle.

19. The communication system of claim 18, comprising a charging device disposed at the road for charging a battery of an electric vehicle traveling on the road, and wherein, responsive to a communication indicative of an electric vehicle traveling on the road, said charging device charges the battery of the electric vehicle as the electric vehicle travels on the road.

20. The communication system of claim 18, wherein the location information and lane boundary information are substantially continuously transmitted by said communication devices at least when the vehicle is detected on the road at or near a respective communication device.