Lane quality service

• US 9,371,072 B1
• Filed: 03/24/2015
• Issued: 06/21/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/24/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Inventors: Sisbot, Emrah Akin
• Primary Examiner(s): Jen, Ian
• Application Number:
  US14/667,361
• Time in Patent Office: 455 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3658 Lane guidance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 18/254 of classification results, e.g. of results related to same input data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 18/256 of results relating to different input data, e.g. multimodal recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/993 Evaluation of the quality of the acquired pattern
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/58 Recognition of moving objects or obstacles, e.g. vehicles or pedestrians; Recognition of traffic objects, e.g. traffic signs, traffic lights or roads
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/588 Recognition of the road, e.g. of lane markings; Recognition of the vehicle driving pattern in relation to the road
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/597 Recognising the driver's state or behaviour, e.g. attention or drowsiness

Abstract

The disclosure includes a system, method and tangible memory for providing a lane quality service. The system includes a back-up camera mounted to the exterior of a vehicle. The system also includes one or more vibration sensors mounted configured to measure sensor data describing a roadway impairment for a current lane of a roadway. The system also includes an onboard vehicle computer including a lane quality application stored in a tangible memory and a processor. The lane quality application, responsive to being executed by the processor, causes the processor to execute steps including: determining a capture time for executing the back-up camera; executing the back-up camera at the capture time to capture image data describing an image of the roadway impairment; determining location data describing a current geographic location of the roadway impairment; and creating a log that describes the sensor data, the image data and the location data.

Claims

1. A system of a vehicle comprising:

a back-up camera mounted to an exterior of the vehicle;

one or more vibration sensors mounted to the vehicle and configured to measure sensor data describing a roadway impairment for a current lane of a roadway; and

an onboard vehicle computer including a lane quality application and a processor, the lane quality application stored in a non-transitory tangible memory communicatively coupled to the processor, wherein the lane quality application, responsive to being executed by the processor, causes the processor to execute steps comprising;

determining, based on the sensor data of the vehicle, a capture time for executing the back-up camera;

executing the back-up camera at the capture time, wherein (1) the capture time is configured so that the back-up camera captures an image of a portion of the current lane which includes the roadway impairment described by the sensor data and (2) the image captured by the back-up camera is described by image data;

determining location data describing a current geographic location of the roadway impairment; and

creating a log that describes the sensor data, the image data and the location data associated with the roadway impairment.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising a communication unit configured to enable the onboard vehicle computer to wirelessly communicate with a network.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the lane quality application, responsive to being executed by the processor, causes the processor to execute a further step comprising transmitting log data describing the log to the network.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein the communication unit is configured to receive Dedicated Short Range (DSRC) communications including other sensor data from one or more other vehicles.

5. The system of claim 2, wherein the communication unit receives lane quality data from the network and the lane quality data is specific for a geographic region and describes which lanes for the geographic region have roadway impairments.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the lane quality data further describes one or more portions of the lanes that are determined to be impaired.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the lane quality data further describes a type of roadway impairment associated with each portion of the lanes that are determined to be impaired.

8. The system of claim 2, wherein the communication unit receives lane quality data from the network and the lane quality data describes a map for a geographic area depicting which lanes of the roadway have roadway impairments, the portions of the lanes that are actually impaired and a type of roadway impairment associated with each portion of the lanes that are determined to be impaired.

9. The system of claim 5, wherein the lane quality data is determined by a lane quality server including a cloud server communicatively coupled to the network and the lane quality data is determined based at least in part on the log data which is transmitted to the network by the communication unit.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the vehicle is included in a fleet of vehicles and the lane quality data is determined based at least in part on the log data and other log data received from one or more other vehicles included in the fleet of vehicles.

11. The system of claim 5, wherein the lane quality application, responsive to being executed by the processor, causes the processor to execute further steps comprising:

determining a present geographic location for a present lane being traveled in by the vehicle;

retrieving the lane quality data associated with the present lane; and

determining, based on the present geographic location and the lane quality data, (1) a presence of an upcoming roadway impairment for the present lane and (2) an alternative lane to be traveled in by the vehicle which does not presently include roadway impairments.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the lane quality application, responsive to being executed by the processor, causes the processor to provide a recommendation to the driver to travel in the alternative lane.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the alternative lane does not include roadway impairments for a range of 0.01 to 10 miles.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the vehicle is an autonomous vehicle, and the lane quality application, responsive to being executed by the processor, causes the vehicle to change lanes to the alternative lane.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein the vehicle is a semi-autonomous vehicle, and the lane quality application, responsive to being executed by the processor, causes the vehicle to change lanes to the alternative lane.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the vehicle changes lanes to the alternative lane without input from a driver of the vehicle.

17. The system of claim 14, wherein the vehicle warns other vehicles on the roadway before the vehicle changes lanes to the alternative lane.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the vehicle warns the other vehicles by broadcasting a warning via DSRC.

19. A method comprising:

measuring, using a vibration sensor mounted to a vehicle, sensor data describing a roadway impairment for a current lane of a roadway being traveled in by the vehicle;

determining, based on sensor data of the vehicle, a capture time for executing a back-up camera mounted to the vehicle;

executing the back-up camera at the capture time, wherein (1) the capture time is configured so that the back-up camera captures an image of the current lane which includes the roadway impairment described by the sensor data and (2) the image captured by the back-up camera is described by image data;

determining location data describing a current geographic location of the roadway impairment;

creating a log that describes the sensor data, the image data and the location data associated with the roadway impairment;

transmitting log data describing the log to a network;

receiving lane quality data from the network, wherein the lane quality data is based on the log data and specific for a geographic region and describes which lanes of the roadway have roadway impairments, a portion of the lanes that are actually impaired and a type of roadway impairment associated with each portion of the lanes that are determined to be impaired;

determining a present geographic location for a present lane being traveled in by the vehicle;

retrieving, from a non-transitory tangible memory, the lane quality data associated with the present geographic location; and

determining, based on the lane quality data and the present geographic location, (1) a presence of an upcoming roadway impairment for the present lane and (2) an alternative lane to be traveled in by the vehicle, wherein the alternative lane does not presently include roadway impairments.

20. A non-transitory tangible memory of a mobile device comprising computer code which, when executed by an electronic device, causes the electronic device to perform steps comprising:

receiving lane quality data from a network, wherein the lane quality data is specific for a geographic region and describes which lanes of a roadway have roadway impairments, a portion of the lanes that are actually impaired and a type of roadway impairment associated with each portion of the lanes that are determined to be impaired;

determining a present geographic location for a present lane being traveled in by a vehicle;

retrieving, from the tangible memory, the lane quality data associated with the present lane;

determining, based on the lane quality data and the present geographic location, (1) a presence of an upcoming roadway impairment for the present lane and (2) an alternative lane to be traveled in by the vehicle, wherein the alternative lane does not presently include roadway impairments; and

providing a warning to a driver of the vehicle that the present lane includes the upcoming roadway impairment and describing an opportunity to travel in the alternative lane which does not presently include roadway impairments.