HVAC Systems for a Motor Vehicle

• US 20170124873A1
• Filed: 06/01/2015
• Published: 05/04/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 06/17/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Vitesco Technologies GmbH (Vitesco Technologies Group AG)
• Original Assignee: Continental Automotive GmbH (Continental AG)
• Inventors: Semsey, Akos, Bruell, Martin, Sawazki, Egor, Baumgaertner, Christoph
• Granted Patent: US 9,830,820 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: B60H 1/0075 the input being solar radiation
• CPC Class Codes: B60H 1/00778 the input being a stationary vehicle position, e.g. parking or stopping
• CPC Class Codes: B60H 1/00985 Control systems or circuits characterised by display or indicating devices, e.g. voice simulators characterised by the input of sound using a voice synthesizer B60H1/00757; B60H1/00978 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3685 the POI's being parking facilities
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/14 indicating individual free spaces in parking areas

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to motor vehicles in general. The teachings thereof may be embodied in various systems and methods for heating and air conditioning motor vehicles. Some embodiments may include a method for indicating a parking position for a motor vehicle, including determining a starting time period for a future start of use of the motor vehicle; determining a direction of solar radiation for a temperature-control time period preceding the starting time period, the direction of solar radiation determined relative to a current or future course of the roadway along which the motor vehicle moves; determining an outside temperature; determining a parking position for the motor vehicle, at which parking position a passenger compartment of the motor vehicle receives a quantity of solar radiant heat smaller than a quantity of solar radiant heat of an alternative parking position thereto if the outside temperature is above a setpoint temperature; and displaying the parking position.

Claims

1. A method for indicating a parking position for a motor vehicle, the method comprising:

determining a starting time period for a future start of use of the motor vehicle;

determining a direction of solar radiation for a temperature-control time period preceding the starting time period, the direction of solar radiation determined relative to a current or future course of the roadway along which the motor vehicle moves;

determining an outside temperature;

determining parking position for the motor vehicle, at which parking position a passenger compartment of the motor vehicle receives a quantity of solar radiant heat smaller than a quantity of solar radiant heat of an alternative parking position thereto if the outside temperature is above a setpoint temperature;

displaying the parking position.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein determining the starting time period comprises:

acquiring travel patterns and predicting a future travel pattern on the basis of the acquired travel patterns;

or by

acquiring the future starting time period as a data input.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein determining the direction of the solar radiation comprises:

determining a current position of the vehicle or a position of the vehicle located in the course of the roadway, by means of a navigation device, and

calculating the direction of the solar radiation on the basis of the position of the vehicle and the position of the sun which results from the local time at this position of the vehicle, for the temperature-control time period,

wherein the determination of the position of the vehicle and the calculation of the direction of the solar radiation are carried out in a calculation device.

4. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the parking position includes a side of the roadway and/or an orientation of the vehicle with respect to the course of the roadway.

5. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the parking position comprises a parking position of all the parking positions which are possible in the course of the roadway at which the passenger compartment receives the greatest quantity of solar radiant heat if the outside temperature is below a setpoint temperature, or the parking position of all the parking positions which are possible in the course of the roadway at which the passenger compartment receives the smallest quantity of solar radiant heat when the outside temperature is above a setpoint temperature.

6. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein detecting the outside temperature comprises:

detecting the temperature by means of a temperature sensor;

or

receiving weather information comprising the current temperature or a predicted temperature for a point in time within the temperature-control time period or starting period;

wherein the outside temperature detected with a temperature sensor is the current outside temperature or a point in time within the temperature-control time period or starting time period, wherein a current temperature is extrapolated to the point in time within the temperature-control time period or starting time period on the basis of the local time at the vehicle.

7. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising calculating a quantity of solar radiant heat for the temperature-control time period, and wherein:

heights of buildings received from a geoservice or read out from a geodatabase are taken into account in the determination of the quantity of solar radiant heat, or

weather condition information or weather information received from a weather service or generated inside the motor vehicle by means of a weather station is taken into account in the determination of the quantity of solar radiant heat.

12. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein displaying the parking position includes a visual display, a voice output, an acoustic signal, or a haptic signal.

8. A parking position indicator for a motor vehicle, the parking position indicator comprising:

an input interface to indicate an expected future start of use of the motor vehicle;

a radiation-detection device configured to determine a direction of the solar radiation for a future temperature-control time period preceding the starting time period;

a navigation device to determine a section of road;

wherein the radiation-detection device determines the direction of the solar radiation relative to a current or future course of the roadway along the section of road or in the vicinity of the section of road;

a temperature input determining an outside temperature of the motor vehicle;

a parking position-determining device connected to the navigation device, the radiation-detection device, the temperature input, and the user input interface, the parking position-determining device configured to determine a parking position for the motor vehicle,

the parking position defined as a parking position and/or orientation at which a passenger compartment of the motor vehicle receives a quantity of solar radiant heat greater than a quantity of solar radiant heat of an alternative parking position thereto when the outside temperature is below a setpoint temperature or lower than a quantity of solar radiant heat of an alternative parking position thereto when the outside temperature is above a setpoint temperature; and

an output interface configured to put out a signal representing the optimized parking position.

9. The parking position indicator as claimed in claim 8, also comprising:

a display connected to the output interface and configured to put out the parking position, and

a parking aid device, wherein the display includes a graphic output device of the parking aid device.

10. The parking indicator as claimed in claim 8, also comprising:

a voice output unit configured to put out the parking position;

an acoustic signal generator configured to put out an acoustic signal as a function of an approach to the optimized parking position;

or

an electromechanical converter unit configured to mechanically interact with a steering system of the vehicle and put out a force signal to the steering system, the force signal is dependent on an approach to the optimized parking position.

13. The parking position indicator as claimed in claim 8, further comprising a travel pattern-detection module with a memory to store starts of use of the motor vehicle as a function of the time, day of the week or vehicle user, and configured to estimate a future start of use on the basis of the data stored in the memory.

11. A method for indicating a parking location for a motor vehicle, the method comprising:

determining a future starting time period for a start of use of the motor vehicle;

determining a direction of solar radiation for a future temperature-control time period preceding the future starting time period, the direction of solar radiation determined relative to a current or future course of the roadway along which the motor vehicle moves;

determining an outside temperature; and

determining an optimized parking position (Pos) for the motor vehicle, at which parking position (Pos) a passenger compartment of the motor vehicle receives a quantity of solar radiant heat which results from the direction of solar radiation and which is greater than a quantity of solar radiant heat of an alternative parking position thereto if the outside temperature is below a setpoint temperature.