VEHICLE INFORMATION PROVIDING DEVICE

• US 20150316389A1
• Filed: 05/31/2013
• Published: 11/05/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 12/27/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.
• Inventors: INOUE, Hirofumi, SAITO, Daisuke, MURAMATSU, Toshiro
• Granted Patent: US 9,733,098 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/622 by satellite navigation
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/70 Interactions with external data bases, e.g. traffic centres
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/72 Charging station selection relying on external data
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2250/12 by confirmation, e.g. of the input
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2250/16 by display
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2260/52 drive range estimation, e.g. of estimation of available travel distance
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2260/54 Energy consumption estimation
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/66 Data transfer between charging stations and vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3461 Preferred or disfavoured areas, e.g. dangerous zones, toll or emission zones, intersections, manoeuvre types, segments such as motorways, toll roads, ferries
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3469 Fuel consumption; Energy use; Emission aspects
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3484 Personalized, e.g. from learned user behaviour or user-defined profiles
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/36 Input/output arrangements for on-board computers
• 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 10/72 Electric energy management in electromobility
• 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 vehicle information providing device provides route information to vehicles. The vehicle information providing device has a history information accumulation unit that sequentially acquires at least one of driving location information, power consumption information and charging location information from vehicle-mounted devices of a plurality of vehicle, and stores as driving history information. A presentation route is determined by extracting the stored driving history information. The stored driving history information is referenced to determine a route travelled from the departure-point range to the target-point range, from among the routes travelled by the vehicle as the presentation route. Also, the vehicle information providing device alters the search conditions and the search is performed again, when there are no routes traveling from the departure location range to the destination range within a predetermined range.

Claims

1. A vehicle information providing device for a vehicle, comprising:

a history information accumulation unit that sequentially acquires at least one of driving location information, power consumption information and charging location information from vehicle-mounted devices installed on a plurality of vehicles that each have an electric motor as a drive source and accumulates this as driving history information;

an input unit for inputting a departure point to a destination point for searching for a route;

a range setting unit that sets a predetermined range including the departure point that is input by the input unit as a departure point range and sets a predetermined range, including the destination point that is input by the input unit as a destination point range;

a similar route setting unit that extracts from the driving history information that is accumulated by the history information accumulation unit, searches for a route that was driven from the departure point range to the destination point range, from among the routes that the vehicle has driven, and sets the searched route as a similar route;

a search unit that performs another search for similar routes by changing a search condition when a number of similar routes detected by the similar route setting unit is less than a first predetermined value or greater than a second predetermined value, which is greater than the first predetermined value;

a presentation route determination unit that determines a similar route that is detected in the similar route setting unit or in the search unit as a presentation route;

a presentation information determination unit that determines at least one of the power that is consumed when driving along the presentation route and charging hubs that will be traversed when driving along the presentation route by referencing the driving history information that is accumulated in the history information accumulation unit; and

a presentation information provision unit that provides information regarding determination results of the presentation route determination unit and determination results of the presentation information determination unit.

2. The vehicle information providing device as recited in claim 1, wherein

when the number of detected similar routes detected by the similar route setting unit is greater than the second predetermined value, the search unit performs another search by adding the following conditions as search conditions for the route:

a route that has been traveled from the departure point range to the destination point range;

a travel condition when the vehicle travels the route that is similar to the travel condition that is expected by the user.

3. The vehicle information providing device as recited in claim 2, wherein

the travel conditions include at least one of the following conditions:

the travel time zone, the driving altitude, the day of week, the season, the outside temperature, the weather, the set temperature of the air conditioner, the driving speed range, and the driving skills of the driver.

4. The vehicle information providing device as recited in claim 1, wherein

the search unit, when the number of similar routes detected by the similar route setting unit is greater than the second predetermined value, decreases at least one of the departure point range and the destination point range, which are set by the range setting unit, to perform another search for a similar route.

5. The vehicle information providing device as recited in claim 1, wherein

the search unit, when a number of similar routes detected by the similar route setting unit is less than the first predetermined value, expands at least one of the departure point range and the destination point range, which are set by the range setting unit, to perform another search for a similar route.

6. The vehicle information providing device as recited in claim 5, further wherein

the search unit, when expanding at least one of the departure point range or the destination point range, which are set by the range setting unit, expands at least one of the departure point range and the destination point range in a state maintaining the minimum distance that connects the departure point range and the destination point range.

7. The vehicle information providing device as recited in claim 1, wherein

the search unit, when the number of similar routes detected by the similar route setting unit is less than the first predetermined value, adds the routes that pass through the departure point range and the destination point range, which are set by the range setting unit, as search targets.

8. The vehicle information providing device as recited in claim 1, wherein

the search unit, when the number of similar routes detected by the similar route setting unit is less than the first predetermined value, generates a composite route by combining a plurality of routes on which a single vehicle or a plurality of mutually different vehicles have traveled and adds the generated composite route to the search targets by referencing the driving history information that is accumulated by the history information accumulation unit.