SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DETERMINING A COLLISION STATUS OF A VEHICLE

• US 20100114467A1
• Filed: 11/06/2008
• Published: 05/06/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 11/06/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Inventors: Yopp, Wilford Trent, Trombley, Roger Arnold, Samuel, Stephen Varghese, Nave, Christopher Scott
• Granted Patent: US 7,991,551 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/119
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/162 event-triggered
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/164 Centralised systems, e.g. external to vehicles

Abstract

A system and method are provided to determine the collision status of a nearby vehicle or vehicles. If a nearby vehicle has been in a collision, responsive systems may be triggered automatically. Responses may include warning the driver of the host vehicle and/or warning drivers of other vehicles or centralized networks by, among other methods, V2V or V2I communications. Responses may also include automatically triggering countermeasures in the host vehicle.

Claims

1. A system for determining a collision status of a vehicle and responding to same, the system comprising;

(a) a mechanism for sensing a presence and a longitudinal speed of the vehicle;

(b) a controller for determining the rate of change of the sensed speed of the vehicle and comparing same to threshold values to determine the collision status of the vehicle; and

(c) if the vehicle has been in a collision, a signal is configured to trigger a response.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the mechanism is a sensing system that comprises at least one of a radar sensor, a lidar sensor or a vision-based sensor.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the mechanism comprises vehicle-to-vehicle communications.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the response is a visual warning in the host vehicle.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the response is an audible warning in the host vehicle.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein the response is as haptic warning in the host vehicle.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein the response is to alert drivers of other vehicles of the collision status of the nearby vehicle via vehicle-to-vehicle communications.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein the response is to alert drivers of other vehicles of the collision status of the nearby vehicle via setting the hazard lights of the host vehicle to on.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein the response is to activate at least one countermeasure.

10. The system of claim 1 further comprising:

(d) if the vehicle has been in a collision, an apparatus for identifying non-drivable paths, drivable paths, and preferred drivable paths.

11. The system of claim 10 further comprising a controller for selecting preferred drivable paths among available drivable paths.

12. The system of claim 11 further comprising:

(e) a signal configured to trigger an audio or visual alert in the host vehicle that identifies one or more of non-drivable, drivable and preferred drivable path information.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein the non-drivable, drivable and preferred drivable path information is communicated via vehicle-to-vehicle or vehicle-to-infrastructure communication.

14. A method of avoiding a collision, comprising:

(a) determining a collision status of a vehicle based upon a change of speed of the nearby vehicle in a longitudinal direction; and

(b) automatically responding to the collision status.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein the automatically responding step comprises providing a visual warning to a driver of the host vehicle.

16. The method of claim 14 wherein the automatically responding step comprises providing an audible warning to a driver of the host vehicle.

17. The method of claim 14 wherein the automatically responding step comprises providing a haptic warning to a driver of the host vehicle.

18. The method of claim 14 wherein the automatically responding step comprises providing a warning to drivers of other vehicles via vehicle-to-vehicle communications.

19. The method of claim 14 wherein the automatically responding step comprises providing a warning to drivers of other vehicles via turning on hazard lights on the host vehicle.

20. The method of claim 14 wherein the automatically responding step comprises applying at least one countermeasure.