System and method for determining a side-impact collision status of a nearby vehicle

• US 7,991,552 B2
• Filed: 11/06/2008
• Issued: 08/02/2011
• 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: Samuel, Stephen, Yopp, W. Trent, Nave, Christopher, Trombley, Roger Arnold
• Primary Examiner(s): Black; Thomas G
• Assistant Examiner(s): Browder; Lindsay M
• Application Number:
  US12/266,231
• Publication Number:
  US 20100114418A1
• Time in Patent Office: 999 Days
• Field of Search: 701/1, 701/224, 701300-302, 701117-119, 340901-904, 340933-943, 340/425.5, 340/435, 340/436, 342 70- 72, 382/103, 382/104, 382/107
• US Class Current: 701/301
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 2021/0006 Lateral collision
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 21/0136 responsive to actual contact with an obstacle , e.g. to vehicle deformation, bumper displacement or bumper velocity relative to the vehicle monitoring crash strength in combination with passenger seat detection B60R21/01558
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/166 for active traffic, e.g. moving vehicles, pedestrians, bikes
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/167 Driving aids for lane monitoring, lane changing, e.g. blind spot detection

Abstract

A system and method are provided to determine the side-impact 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 installable on a host vehicle for determining a side-impact collision status of a remote vehicle and responding to same, the system comprising;

(a) a mechanism for detecting a presence of the remote vehicle;

(b) a controller for determining the lateral displacement of the remote vehicle in predetermined time intervals and comparing same to threshold values to determine the side-impact collision status of the remote vehicle; and

(c) if the remote vehicle has been in a side-impact 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 remote 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 remote vehicle via setting hazard lights of the host vehicle to on.

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

10. The system of claim 1 further comprising:

(d) if the vehicle has been in a side-impact 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 10 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. A method of avoiding a collision, comprising, from a host vehicle:

(a) determining a side-impact collision status of a remote vehicle based upon lateral displacement of the remote vehicle in predetermined time intervals relative to the remote vehicle'"'"'s longitudinal direction of travel and comparing measured lateral displacement to predetermined thresholds to determine if the side-impact collision status is positive; and

(b) automatically responding to the side-impact collision status.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein the automatically responding step comprises providing a visual warning to a driver of the host vehicle.

15. The method of claim 13 wherein the automatically responding step comprises providing an audible warning to a driver of the host vehicle.

16. The method of claim 13 wherein the automatically responding step comprises providing a haptic warning to a driver of the host vehicle.

17. The method of claim 13 wherein the automatically responding step comprises providing a warning to drivers of other vehicles via vehicle-to-vehicle communications.

18. The method of claim 13 wherein the automatically responding step comprises providing a warning to drivers of other vehicles via turning on hazard lights on the host vehicle.

19. The method of claim 13 wherein the automatically responding step comprises applying at least one countermeasure.

20. A system installable on a host vehicle for determining a side-impact collision status of a remote vehicle and responding to same, the system comprising;

(a) a mechanism for detecting a presence of the remote vehicle;

(b) a controller for determining the lateral displacement of the remote vehicle in predetermined time intervals and comparing same to threshold values to determine the side-impact collision status of the remote vehicle;

(c) if the remote vehicle has been in a side-impact collision, a signal is configured to trigger a response; and

(d) if the remote vehicle has been in a side-impact collision, an apparatus for identifying non-drivable paths, drivable paths, and preferred drivable paths wherein driving path information is communicated to the host vehicle via vehicle-to-vehicle or vehicle-to-infrastructure communication.