Vehicle control apparatus and vehicle including the same

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10459455-B2
Application number	US-201715644484-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 7, 2017
Priority date	Jul 28, 2016
Publication date	Oct 29, 2019
Grant date	Oct 29, 2019

Abstract

A vehicle control apparatus of an autonomous driving vehicle performing autonomous driving includes a display, a wireless communication unit transmitting and receiving a message to and from a certain vehicle positioned within a predetermined range, and a controller controlling the display on the basis of a message received through the wireless communication unit, wherein the controller turns on or off a group driving mode on the basis of a user input, and when the group driving mode is turned on, the controller controls the display to display a list of candidate vehicles which may be included in a group among vehicles positioned within the predetermined range.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A vehicle control apparatus for a vehicle, the vehicle control apparatus comprising:
a display unit;
a wireless communication unit configured to transmit and receive a message to and from at least one other vehicle positioned within a predetermined range from the vehicle;
at least one processor; and
a computer-readable medium coupled to the at least one processor having stored thereon instructions which, when executed by the at least one processor, causes the at least one processor to perform operations comprising:
receiving, via the wireless communication unit, the message from the other vehicle;
receiving user input comprising control input that activates or deactivates a group driving mode of the vehicle;
determining that the group driving mode is active; and
instructing the display unit to display a graphical representation of the at least one other vehicle positioned within the predetermined range to be added to a driving group comprising one or more member vehicles,

wherein the operations further comprise:
instructing the display unit to display a map indicating a position of the vehicle,
based on no member vehicle of the driving group being displayed in the map while the group driving mode is active, instructing the display unit to change a scale of the map such that a maximum area for searching for the at least one other vehicle is displayed in the map, and
based on the member vehicles of the driving group being displayed while the group driving mode is active, instructing the display unit to change the scale of the map based on a relative position of the member vehicles of the driving group.

2. The vehicle control apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the operations comprise:
instructing the display unit to display a list of request messages associated with the group driving mode;
receiving the user input comprising a selection of at least one request message of the displayed list of request messages; and
instructing the wireless communication unit to transmit the selected request message to the member vehicles of the driving group.

3. The vehicle control apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the operations comprise:
determining that approval messages approving the transmitted request message are received from corresponding member vehicles; and
controlling the vehicle based on a group driving operation associated with the selected request message.

4. The vehicle control apparatus of claim 3 , wherein the operations comprise:
determining that a rejection message disapproving the transmitted request message is received from at least one member vehicle; and
instructing the display unit to display notification information indicating the receiving of the rejection message.

5. The vehicle control apparatus of claim 3 , wherein the group driving operation is any one of deceleration, acceleration, parking, lane change, following distance adjustment, destination change, and a change of master vehicle used as a reference vehicle for the group driving mode.

6. The vehicle control apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the instruction to the wireless communication unit comprises transmitting the selected request to a selected group of the member vehicles, the selected group set based on the user input comprising a selection of vehicles.

7. The vehicle control apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the operations comprise modifying the list of the request messages, the modification comprising at least one of:
editing a request message included in the list of the request messages;
deleting a request message included in the list of the request messages; or
adding a new request message to the list of the request messages.

8. The vehicle control apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the operations comprise processing the message received by the wireless communication unit based on an activation status of the group driving mode.

9. The vehicle control apparatus of claim 8 , wherein the operations comprise:
processing a received message originating from the one or more member vehicles with a higher priority over a received message originating from a non-member vehicle that is not included in the driving group.

10. The vehicle control apparatus of claim 8 , wherein the operations comprise:
disregarding a message received from a non-member vehicle that is not included in the driving group.

11. The vehicle control apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the operations comprise:
receiving the user input comprising a selection of one or more other vehicles displayed by the display unit;
instructing the wireless communication unit to transmit a group join request message to the selected one or more other vehicles;
determining that at least one approval message approving the transmitted group join request message is received from the selected one or more other vehicles; and
adding the other vehicle associated with the approval message to the driving group as a member vehicle.

12. The vehicle control apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the operations comprise:
determining non-member vehicles based on receiving a rejection message disapproving the transmitted group join request message from the selected one or more other vehicles; and
instructing the display unit to highlight the member vehicles of the driving group, the highlighting configured to distinguish the member vehicles from the non-member vehicles.

13. The vehicle control apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the group driving mode is active, and wherein the operations comprise:
determining that the control input that deactivates the group driving mode is received; and
releasing the member vehicles from the driving group.

14. The vehicle control apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the operations comprise:
instructing the display unit to display a main object corresponding to the vehicle and a sub-object corresponding to a member vehicle of the driving group, and
determining a placement of the sub-object relative to the main object based on a relative position of the member vehicle with respect to the vehicle.

15. The vehicle control apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the operations comprise:
determining that a separation between a first vehicle of the member vehicles and the vehicle is greater than a reference distance; and
instructing the wireless communication unit to transmit a warning message to the first vehicle.

16. The vehicle control apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the operations comprise:
determining a number of messages received by the wireless communication unit per unit time interval; and
instructing the display unit to display a graphic object that indicates the number of received messages.

17. The vehicle control apparatus of claim 16 , wherein the determining of the number of messages received by the wireless communication unit per unit time interval comprises:
determining whether the group driving mode is active or inactive;
based on the group driving mode being active, calculating the number of messages based on messages received from the member vehicles; and
based on the group driving mode being inactive, calculating the number of messages based on all received messages.

18. A vehicle comprising:
a plurality of wheels;
a power source configured to drive at least two of the plurality of wheels; and
a vehicle control apparatus comprising:
a display unit,
a wireless communication unit configured to transmit and receive a message to and from at least one other vehicle positioned within a predetermined range from the vehicle,
at least one processor, and
a computer-r

Assignees

• Lg Electronics Inc

Inventors

• PUNITHAN Xavier
• KI Hyunho
• Park Juhnho
• Kim Hansung
• Bae Jaeseung
• Yoon Jaehwan
• Park Suho

Classifications

• G05D1/0295 Primary

  by at least one leading vehicle of the fleet · CPC title

• G05D1/0027

  involving a plurality of vehicles, e.g. fleet or convoy travelling (fleet control of land vehicles from a control room G05D1/0297; traffic control systems for road vehicles G08G1/00; for marine craft G08G3/00; for aircraft G08G5/00) · CPC title

• G05D1/0016

  characterised by the operator's input device (input arrangements for computing systems in general G06F3/00) · CPC title

• G05D1/0293

  Convoy travelling · CPC title

• G05D1/0276

  using signals provided by a source external to the vehicle (involving a plurality of vehicles G05D1/0287; automatically controlling vehicle speed responsive to externally generated signals B60K31/0058) · CPC title