Method and system for using weather information in operation of autonomous vehicles

• US 10,031,521 B1
• Filed: 01/16/2017
• Issued: 07/24/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 01/16/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NIO Technology Company Limited (Shanghai Anbin Technology Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Nio Usa Inc.
• Inventors: Newman, Austin L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Jos, Basil T.
• Application Number:
  US15/407,064
• Publication Number:
  US 20180203443A1
• Time in Patent Office: 554 Days
• CPC Class Codes: B60H 1/00771 the input being a vehicle position or surrounding, e.g. GPS-based position or tunnel
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 1/00 Supplying electric power to auxiliary equipment of vehicles circuit arrangements for charging batteries H02J7/00
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/64 Road conditions
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/66 Ambient conditions
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 58/12 responding to state of charge [SoC]
• CPC Class Codes: B60Y 2200/91 Electric vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: B60Y 2200/92 Hybrid vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: B60Y 2300/24 Adaptation to external conditions, e.g. road surface conditions
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3484 Personalized, e.g. from learned user behaviour or user-defined profiles
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3691 Retrieval, searching and output of information related to real-time traffic, weather, or environmental conditions arrangements for giving variable traffic instructions G08G1/09
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/70 Energy storage systems for electromobility, e.g. batteries
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/72 Electric energy management in electromobility
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 90/16 Information or communication technologies improving the operation of electric vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 903/93 Conjoint control of different elements

Abstract

Systems of an electrical vehicle and the operations thereof are provided that receives weather forecast information associated with a current geographic location of the vehicle and alters or implement a change to an autonomous driving operational setting and/or selects and activates one or more climate control settings to condition the vehicle interior for one or more occupants.

Claims

1. A vehicle, comprising:

a vehicle interior for receiving one or more occupants;

a climate control system to control a temperature in at least a portion of the vehicle interior or exterior;

a plurality of sensors to collect sensed information associated with the vehicle interior and exterior of the vehicle;

rechargeable energy storage;

an automatic vehicle location system to determine a current spatial location of the vehicle;

a computer readable medium to store an autonomous driving agent to operate autonomously vehicle operations; and

a microprocessor, coupled to the plurality of sensors, climate control system, automatic vehicle location system, and computer readable medium, that receives weather forecast information associated with a current geographic location of the vehicle and at least one of;

(a) alters or implement a change to an autonomous driving operational setting to be employed when the vehicle is in a full automation level in which the microprocessor requires no human driver interaction in any driving operation of the vehicle or (b) selects and activates one or more climate control settings based on a selected state of charge of the rechargeable energy storage to condition the vehicle interior for one or more occupants while maintaining a sufficient amount of energy in the rechargeable energy storage to meet a predicted energy demand for the vehicle using the selected state of charge.

2. The vehicle of claim 1, wherein the microprocessor performs operation (a) and wherein the autonomous driving operational setting is one or more of a change to a throttle peddle mapping, a change in a torque level produced by one or more electric motors, change a braking distance of the vehicle, an electronic stability control setting, a traction control system setting, a sensitivity setting of a sensor, a predicted behavior of an exterior object, and a safety restraint restriction.

3. The vehicle of claim 2, wherein the vehicle is parked in a protected environment, wherein the changed autonomous driving operational setting is a predicted behavior of an exterior object, and wherein the protected environment has a different temperature and moisture level than the environment exterior to the protected environment.

4. The vehicle of claim 1, wherein the microprocessor performs operation (b), wherein the weather forecast information comprises one or more of an expected temperature, wind speed, wind direction, relative humidity, wind chill, dew point, barometric pressure, ultraviolet index, degree of visibility, level of precipitation, or type of precipitation at the current geographic location of the vehicle, and wherein the microprocessor applies an inference engine in determining when or how to activate the one or more climate control settings.

5. The vehicle of claim 4, wherein input to the inference engine comprises plural of an amount of energy to be consumed by the activated one or more climate control settings, a future or current state of charge of an energy storage unit of the vehicle, and an amount of energy to be consumed by the vehicle traveling a predetermined route.

6. The vehicle of claim 5, wherein the autonomous driving agent determines the predetermined route to be traveled based on one or more of waypoint, destination or route that is currently programmed into the vehicle, currently programmed into a portable computing device of a potential occupant, derived from an appointment on an electronic calendar of a potential occupant, derived from Internet search results stored in the vehicle or the portable computing device, or based on historic behavior of the potential occupant.

7. A method, comprising:

in a vehicle comprising a vehicle interior for receiving one or more occupants, a climate control system to control a temperature in at least a portion of the vehicle interior or exterior, a plurality of sensors to collect sensed information associated with the vehicle interior and exterior of the vehicle, rechargeable energy storage, and an automatic vehicle location system to determine a current spatial location of the vehicle, receiving, by a microprocessor, coupled to the plurality of sensors, climate control system, automatic vehicle location system, and computer readable medium, weather forecast information associated with a current geographic location of the vehicle; and

performing, by the microprocessor, at least one of;

(a) altering or implement a change to an autonomous driving operational setting to be employed when the vehicle is in a full automation level in which the microprocessor requires no human driver interaction in any driving operation of the vehicle or (b) selecting and activating one or more climate control settings to condition the vehicle interior for one or more occupants while maintaining a sufficient amount of stored charge in the rechargeable energy storage to meet a predicted energy usage for the vehicle using the stored charge.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the microprocessor alters or implements a change to an autonomous driving operational setting and wherein the autonomous driving operational setting is one or more of a change to a throttle peddle mapping, a change in a torque level produced by one or more electric motors, change a braking distance of the vehicle, an electronic stability control setting, a traction control system setting, a sensitivity setting of a sensor, a predicted behavior of an exterior object, and a safety restraint restriction.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the vehicle is parked in a protected environment, wherein the changed autonomous driving overation setting is a predicted behavior of an exterior object, and wherein the protected environment has a different temperature and moisture level than the environment exterior to the protected environment.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the microprocessor selects and activates one or more climate control settings to condition the vehicle interior for one or more occupants, wherein the weather forecast information comprises one or more of an expected temperature, wind speed, wind direction, relative humidity, wind chill, dew point, barometric pressure, ultraviolet index, degree of visibility, level of precipitation, or type of precipitation at the current geographic location of the vehicle, and wherein the microprocessor applies an inference engine in determining when or how to activate the one or more climate control settings.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein input to the microprocessor comprises plural of an amount of energy to be consumed by the activated one or more climate control settings, a future or current state of charge of an energy storage unit of the vehicle, and an amount of energy to be consumed by the vehicle traveling a predetermined route.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the microprocessor determines the predetermined route to be traveled based on one or more of waypoint, destination or route that is currently programmed into the vehicle, currently programmed into a portable computing device of a potential occupant, derived from an appointment on an electronic calendar of a potential occupant, derived from Internet search results stored in the vehicle or the portable computing device, or based on historic behavior of the potential occupant.

13. A vehicle, comprising:

a vehicle interior for receiving one or more occupants;

a climate control system to control a temperature in at least a portion of the vehicle interior or exterior;

a plurality of sensors to collect sensed information associated with the vehicle interior and exterior of the vehicle;

rechargeable energy storage;

an automatic vehicle location system to determine a current spatial location of the vehicle;

a computer readable medium to store an autonomous driving agent to operate autonomously vehicle operations; and

a microprocessor, coupled to the plurality of sensors, climate control system, automatic vehicle location system, and computer readable medium, that receives weather forecast information associated with a current geographic location of the vehicle and one or more of (a) alters or implement a change to an autonomous driving operational setting to be employed when the vehicle is in a full automation level in which the microprocessor requires no human driver interaction in any driving operation of the vehicle and (b) selects and activates one or more climate control settings to condition the vehicle interior for one or more occupants while maintaining a sufficient amount of energy in the rechargeable energy storage to meet a predicted energy demand for the vehicle using the selected state of charge.

14. The vehicle of claim 13, wherein the microprocessor performs operation (a) and wherein the autonomous driving operational setting is one or more of a change to a throttle peddle mapping, a change in a torque level produced by one or more electric motors, change a braking distance of the vehicle, an electronic stability control setting, a traction control system setting, a sensitivity setting of a sensor, a predicted behavior of an exterior object and a safety restraint restriction.

15. The vehicle of claim 14, wherein the vehicle is parked in a protected environment, wherein the changed autonomous driving operational setting is a predicted behavior of an exterior object, and wherein the protected environment has a different temperature and moisture level than the environment exterior to the protected environment.

16. The vehicle of claim 13, wherein the microprocessor performs overation (a) and wherein the autonomous driving agent selects and activates one or more climate control settings to condition the vehicle interior for one or more occupants.

17. The vehicle of claim 16, wherein the microprocessor performs operation (a) and wherein the autonomous driving operational setting is one or more of a change to a throttle peddle mapping, a change in a torque level produced by one or more electric motors, change a braking distance of the vehicle, an electronic stability control setting, a traction control system setting, a sensitivity setting of a sensor, and a safety restraint restriction.

18. The vehicle of claim 17, wherein the microprocessor performs operation (b), wherein the weather forecast information comprises one or more an expected temperature, wind speed, wind direction, relative humidity, wind chill, dew point, barometric pressure, ultraviolet index, degree of visibility, level of precipitation, or type of precipitation at the current geographic location of the vehicle, and wherein the microprocessor applies an inference engine in determining when or how to activate the one or more climate control settings.

19. The vehicle of claim 18, wherein input to the inference engine comprises plural of an amount of energy to be consumed by the activated one or more climate control settings, a future or current state of charge of an energy storage unit of the vehicle, and an amount of energy to be consumed by the vehicle traveling a predetermined route.

20. The vehicle of claim 19, wherein the autonomous driving agent determines the predetermined route to be traveled based on one or more of waypoint, destination or route that is currently programmed into the vehicle, currently programmed into a portable computing device of a potential occupant, derived from an appointment on an electronic calendar of a potential occupant, derived from Internet search results stored in the vehicle or the portable computing device, or based on historic behavior of the potential occupant.