Driving assistance device, and storage medium

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10421394-B2
Application number	US-201816044670-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 25, 2018
Priority date	Aug 9, 2017
Publication date	Sep 24, 2019
Grant date	Sep 24, 2019

Abstract

A driving assistance device for assisting driving a vehicle includes a non-congested state calculation unit and an intent notification control unit. The non-congested state calculation unit is configured to calculate a non-congested state of a plurality of dynamic obstacles around the vehicle. The intent notification control unit is configured to control a notification device such that a notification of intent of the vehicle to pass is performed based on the non-congested state calculated by the non-congested state calculation unit after the vehicle has decelerated or stopped.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A driving assistance device configured to assist driving of a vehicle, the driving assistance device comprising:
one or more processors programmed to:
while the vehicle is decelerating or stopped, calculate a non-congested state of a plurality of dynamic obstacles around the vehicle; and
control a notification device such that a notification of intent of the vehicle to pass is performed based on the non-congested state calculated.

2. The driving assistance device according to claim 1 , further comprising an actuator configured to control behavior of the vehicle based on the non-congested state,
wherein the actuator performs a control to move the vehicle forward at a speed equal to or lower than a predetermined speed based on the non-congested state.

3. The driving assistance device according to claim 1 , wherein the one or more processors are further programmed acquire traffic information on traffic around the vehicle, and control the notification of intent of the vehicle to pass based on the traffic information on traffic around the vehicle.

4. The driving assistance device according to claim 1 , wherein the one or more processors are further programmed to calculate the non-congested state by using the number of dynamic obstacles present in a predetermined region around the vehicle.

5. The driving assistance device according to claim 1 , wherein the one or more processors are further programmed to perform a control of a notification of intent to yield to the dynamic obstacles before the non-congested state of the plurality of dynamic obstacles is calculated.

6. The driving assistance device according to claim 1 , wherein the one or more processors are further programmed to:
recognize the plurality of dynamic obstacles around the vehicle;
perform a driving control of the vehicle based on a recognition result of the plurality of dynamic obstacles around the vehicle,
wherein the vehicle is decelerated or stopped by the driving control.

7. The driving assistance device according to claim 1 , wherein the non-congested state is based on a calculation of a ratio of an area occupied by dynamic obstacles within a predetermined region around the vehicle.

8. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing a program, the program including instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to:
while the vehicle is decelerating or stopped, calculate a non-congested state of a plurality of dynamic obstacles around a vehicle, and
control a notification device for performing a notification of intent of the vehicle to pass based on the calculated non-congested state.

Assignees

• Toyota Motor Co Ltd

Inventors

• Morimura Junichi
• Watanabe Junya
• Arakawa Seiji

Classifications

• B60W2554/406

  Traffic density · CPC title

• B60W2554/80

  Spatial relation or speed relative to objects · CPC title

• B60W50/14

  Means for informing the driver, warning the driver or prompting a driver intervention · CPC title

• B60W50/082

  Selecting or switching between different modes of propelling · CPC title

• B60W60/00276

  for two or more other traffic participants · CPC title