Vehicle control system

• US 9,914,358 B2
• Filed: 06/10/2015
• Issued: 03/13/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 06/10/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Brewer, Derek R., Langford, Kerry M., Wilhelm, Robert D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Fan, Hongmin
• Application Number:
  US14/735,313
• Publication Number:
  US 20160362000A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,007 Days
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 28/06 responsive to incapacity of driver
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2040/0818 Inactivity or incapacity of driver
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2040/0872 Driver physiology
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2050/0095 Automatic control mode change
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 40/08 related to drivers or passengers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/00 Handling natural language data speech analysis or synthesis, speech recognition G10L
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/279 Recognition of textual entities

Abstract

A vehicle can be controlled based on feedback from a driver of the vehicle when a mobile device is connected to a computer system. A profile for a driver can be used. The system can receive data about the driver from the mobile device. The data and answers can be sent to a natural language processing (NLP) system for analysis. The NLP system can return a determination that the user is cognitively disengaged, and thus unable to safely drive the vehicle. The system can then control the vehicle.

Claims

1. A computer system for controlling a vehicle based on feedback from a driver of the vehicle, the system comprising:

at least one processor circuit configured to;

connect to a user device, the user device associated with the driver of the vehicle and connected to the vehicle;

access, based on the connection, a profile associated with the driver of the vehicle, the profile including information regarding the driver'"'"'s medical conditions;

receive, from the user device, data about the driver of the vehicle;

send, to a natural language processing (NLP) system, the NLP system configured to process unstructured textual data, the data about the driver of the vehicle and the profile;

receive, from the NLP system, a determination based on data, including unstructured textual data, that the driver is cognitively disengaged;

transfer, based on the determination, control of the vehicle to an automated control node within the vehicle;

in response to determining the driver is cognitively disengaged, determine a severity of the driver'"'"'s cognitive disengagement;

determine, based on the severity, one or more contacts associated with the driver to contact; and

notify the one or more contacts of the driver'"'"'s cognitive disengagement.

2. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the processor circuit is further configured to:

send, based on the profile, prompts to the user device;

receive, in response to the prompts, input from the user device; and

send, to the NLP system, the input from the user device.

3. The computer system of claim 2 wherein the prompts comprise questions designed to test cognitive abilities of the driver.

4. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the circuit is further configured to notify, based on the controlling, one or more contacts associated with the driver of the vehicle.

5. The computer system of claim 1, wherein controlling the vehicle comprises initiating transfer of control of the vehicle to an automated control node in the vehicle.

6. The computer system of claim 1 wherein the data about the driver of the vehicle comprises data collected from sensors on the user device and from the vehicle.

7. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the data about the driver of the vehicle comprises historical usage data, relative to driving patterns.

8. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the circuit is further configured to:

receive, in response to the controlling and from the user device, additional data about the driver of the vehicle;

send, to the NLP system, the additional data about the driver;

receive, from the NLP system, a determination that the driver is cognitively engaged;

initiate transfer of control of the vehicle to the driver.

9. A computer program product for controlling a vehicle based on feedback from a driver of the vehicle, the computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, wherein the computer readable storage medium is not a transitory signal per se, the program instructions executable by a computer processing circuit to cause the circuit to perform a method comprising:

connecting to a user device, the user device associated with the driver of the vehicle and connected to the vehicle;

accessing, based on the connecting, a profile associated with the driver of the vehicle, the profile including information regarding the driver'"'"'s medical conditions;

receiving, from the user device, data about the driver of the vehicle;

sending, to a natural language processing (NLP) system, the NLP system configured to process unstructured textual data, the data about the driver of the vehicle and the profile;

receiving, from the NLP system, a determination based on data, including unstructured textual data, that the driver is cognitively disengaged;

transfer, based on the determination, control of the vehicle to an automated control node within the vehicle;

in response to determining the driver is cognitively disengaged, determining a severity of the driver'"'"'s cognitive disengagement;

determining, based on the severity, one or more contacts associated with the driver to contact; and

notifying the one or more contacts of the driver'"'"'s cognitive disengagement.

10. The computer program product of claim 9, further comprising:

sending, based on the profile, prompts to the user device;

receiving, in response to the prompts, input from the user device; and

sending, to the NLP system, the input from the user device.

11. The computer program product of claim 9, wherein the method further comprises notifying, based on the controlling, one or more contacts associated with the driver of the vehicle.