Method and device for activating at least one vehicle component of a vehicle

• US 9,156,446 B2
• Filed: 07/13/2010
• Issued: 10/13/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 07/15/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: GM Global Technology Operations LLC (General Motors Company)
• Original Assignee: GM Global Technology Operations LLC (General Motors Company)
• Inventors: Bonne, Uwe
• Primary Examiner(s): Beaulieu, Yonel
• Assistant Examiner(s): KLEINMAN, LAIL A
• Application Number:
  US12/835,173
• Publication Number:
  US 20110040454A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,918 Days
• Field of Search: 701/48
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: B60T 2260/04 Automatic transmission
• CPC Class Codes: B60T 7/12 for automatic initiation; for initiation not subject to will of driver or passenger limiting speed of vehicles other than rail vehicles B60K31/00
• CPC Class Codes: B60T 8/174 characterised by using special control logic, e.g. fuzzy logic , neural computing

Abstract

A method is provided for activating at least one vehicle component of a vehicle in a braking situation of the vehicle. The method includes, but is not limited to raking of the vehicle to a halt and monitoring of at least one second vehicle component take place, and the second vehicle component can be actuated by a vehicle occupant. In addition, actuation of the at least one first vehicle component after a predetermined time takes place in the event that the second vehicle component is not actuated by the vehicle occupant within the predetermined time.

Claims

1. A method for activating a parking brake of a vehicle, the method comprising:

determining an emergency braking scenario, wherein the vehicle is brought to a halt by an emergency braking system, braking the vehicle automatically without driver input;

determining an unconscious driver condition when a position of a brake pedal or a gas pedal of the vehicle does not change for a predetermined time after the emergency braking scenario; and

actuating the parking brake when the unconscious driver condition is met.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the braking of the vehicle takes place at least partially through a system of the vehicle.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the braking of the vehicle solely takes place through a system of the vehicle.

4. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

monitoring a driving device when the vehicle is determined to be brought to a halt by the emergency braking system; and

actuating the parking brake when neither the brake pedal or the gas pedal are depressed within a predetermined time from the braking of the vehicle to a halt by the emergency braking system and when the driving device is not moved within the predetermined time from the braking of the vehicle to a halt by the emergency braking system.

5. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

monitoring a transmission device when the vehicle is determined to be brought to a halt by the emergency braking system; and

actuating the parking brake when neither the brake pedal or the gas pedal are depressed within a predetermined time from the braking of the vehicle to a halt by the emergency braking system and when the transmission device is not moved within the predetermined time from the braking of the vehicle to a halt by the emergency braking system.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the monitoring of the gas pedal and brake pedal takes place through an on-board computer of the vehicle.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the actuating is performed by a validation device with at least one sensor, and wherein the method further comprises preventing the actuating of the first vehicle component after the predetermined time when the validation device detects the actuation of the second vehicle component.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein the at least one sensor is an acoustic sensor.

9. The method according to claim 7, wherein the at least one sensor is an optical sensor.

10. The method according to claim 7, wherein the validation device comprises a fuzzy logic network.

11. The method according to claim 7, wherein the validation device comprises a neural network.

12. The method according to claim 6, further comprising transmitting warning information via a vehicle-to-vehicle communication device.

13. A device for activating a parking brake of a vehicle comprising:

an emergency braking system designed for automatically braking the vehicle to a halt in an emergency braking scenario without driver input;

a monitoring device determining an unconscious driver condition when a position of a brake pedal or gas pedal of the vehicle does not change for a predetermined time after the emergency braking scenario; and

an actuation device designed for actuating the parking brake when the unconscious driver condition is met.

14. The device according to claim 13, wherein the monitoring device further monitors a driving device and the actuation device is further configured to actuate the parking brake when the monitoring device determines that neither the brake pedal or the gas pedal were depressed within a predetermined time from the emergency braking system braking the vehicle to a halt and the driving device was not moved within the predetermined time from the emergency braking system braking the vehicle to a halt.

15. The device according to claim 13, wherein the monitoring device further monitors a transmission device and the actuation device is further configured to actuate the parking brake when the monitoring device determines that neither the brake pedal or the gas pedal were depressed within a predetermined time from the emergency braking system braking the vehicle to a halt and the transmission device was not moved within the predetermined time from the emergency braking system braking the vehicle to a halt.