Drive assistance system and center

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10479377-B2
Application number	US-201515521626-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 2, 2015
Priority date	Nov 7, 2014
Publication date	Nov 19, 2019
Grant date	Nov 19, 2019

Abstract

A drive assistance system includes an onboard device that is mounted on a vehicle performing automatic driving based on sensing information detected by a sensor of the vehicle, and a center that communicates with the onboard device. The onboard device includes a sensing information acquisition portion that acquires the sensing information. Either the onboard device or the center includes an evaluation portion that evaluates a detection performance of the sensor based on the sensing information. The center includes a region specification portion that specifies a decrease region where the detection performance of the sensor decreases, the decrease region specified by the detection performance, based on the sensing information, and the decrease region specified by a position at which the sensing information has been detected. The onboard device stops the automatic driving when the vehicle is located in the decrease region.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A drive assistance system comprising:
an onboard device that is mounted on a vehicle performing automatic driving based on sensing information detected by a sensor of the vehicle, wherein each of a plurality of vehicles performing automatic driving includes the onboard device and the sensor; and
a center that communicates with the onboard device,
wherein:
the onboard device includes a sensing information acquisition portion that acquires the sensing information detected by the sensor;
either the onboard device or the center includes an evaluation portion that evaluates a detection performance of the sensor based on the sensing information acquired by the sensing information acquisition portion;
the center includes a region specification portion that specifies a decrease region where the detection performance of the sensor decreases based on the detection performance of the sensors and positions at which the sensing information has been detected by each of the sensors; and
the onboard device stops the automatic driving when the vehicle is located in the decrease region specified by the region specification portion.

2. The drive assistance system according to claim 1 , wherein:
the onboard device includes a notification process portion that issues driving switch notification urging a driver to switch the automatic driving to manual driving; and
the automatic driving is stopped based on the driving switch notification issued from the notification process portion.

3. The drive assistance system according to claim 1 , wherein:
the onboard device includes an automatic driving stop portion that stops the automatic driving; and
the automatic driving is stopped by the automatic driving stop portion.

4. The drive assistance system according to claim 1 , wherein:
the center includes a decrease region transmission process portion that transmits information indicating the decrease region specified by the region specification portion to the onboard device; and
the onboard device stops the automatic driving
when the vehicle is located in the decrease region based on the information indicating the decrease region transmitted by the decrease region transmission process portion, and based on a current position of the vehicle.

5. The drive assistance system according to claim 1 , wherein:
the center includes a vehicle position acquisition portion that acquires a current position of the vehicle on which the onboard device is mounted;
the center includes an instruction transmission process portion that transmits instruction information stopping the automatic driving of the vehicle
when the vehicle is located in the decrease region based on the decrease region specified by the region specification portion, and based on the current position of the vehicle acquired by the vehicle position acquisition portion; and
the onboard device stops the automatic driving in accordance with the instruction information received from the instruction transmission process portion.

6. The drive assistance system according to claim 1 , wherein:
the onboard device includes a recommended route acquisition portion that acquires a recommended route of the vehicle; and
the automatic driving is stopped when the recommended route passes through the decrease region specified by the region specification portion.

7. The drive assistance system according to claim 1 , wherein:
the center includes, as the evaluation portion, a center evaluation portion;
the onboard device transmits the sensing information acquired by the sensing information acquisition portion to the center; and
the center evaluation portion evaluates the detection performance of the sensor based on the sensing information transmitted from the onboard device.

8. The drive assistance system according to claim 1 , wherein:
the sensor is configured by a plurality of types of sensors operated under different detection principles.

9. The drive assistance system according to claim 8 , wherein:
the plurality of types of sensors include a sensor that detects the sensing information on either a position or a gradient; and
the evaluation portion evaluates the detection performance of the sensor based on an error between map information and the sensing information with respect to the sensor that detects the sensing information on either the position or the gradient.

10. The drive assistance system according to claim 8 , wherein:
the plurality of types of sensors include sensors of different classifications in an identical type operated under an identical detection principle; and
the onboard device stops the automatic driving when the vehicle is located in the decrease region for the sensor of a classification identical to a classification of the sensor of the vehicle.

11. The drive assistance system according to claim 1 , wherein:
the onboard device includes, as the evaluation portion, a vehicle evaluation portion that evaluates the detection performance of the sensor based on the sensing information acquired by the sensing information acquisition portion at a plurality of points of time;
the onboard device transmits detection performance information indicating the detection performance of the sensor evaluated by the vehicle evaluation portion to the center in association with a position of the onboard device at a point of time when the evaluation is determined; and
the region specification portion specifies the decrease region based on the detection performance information transmitted from each of a plurality of the vehicles.

12. The drive assistance system according to claim 1 , wherein:
the region specification portion specifies the decrease region where the detection performance of the sensor mounted on the vehicle decreases based on the detection performance of the sensor mounted on a different vehicle and a position at which the sensor of the different vehicle detects the sensing information.

13. The drive assistance system according to claim 1 , wherein:
the evaluation portion compares the sensing information and a map data stored in a map database; and
the evaluation portion determines that the detection performance of the sensor decreases greater as an error between the sensing information and the map data is greater.

14. A center comprising:
an upload information acquisition portion that communicates with an onboard device mounted on a vehicle performing automatic driving based on sensing information detected by a sensor of the vehicle, which is configured to perform automatic driving, wherein the upload information acquisition portion acquires the sensing information transmitted from each of the onboard device;
a center evaluation portion that evaluates a detection performance of the sensor based on the sensing information transmitted from the onboard device;
a region specification portion that specifies a decrease region where the detection performance of the sensor decreases based on the detection performance of the sensors and positions at which the sensing information has been detected by each of the sensors;
a distribution portion that transmits information on the decrease region to a particular onboard device; and
a map database that stores map data;
wherein:
the sensor of the vehicle includes at least one of a receiver for a global positioning system, a gyro sensor, a camera, or a radar; and
the center evaluation portion compares the sensing information acquired by the upload information acquisition portion with at least one of a road included in the map data, an actual gradient of a link included in the map data, actual coordinates

Assignees

• Denso Corp
• Denson Corp

Inventors

• NISHIDA Kentarou

Classifications

• B60W2050/0072

  Controller asks driver to take over · CPC title

• B60W2756/10

  Involving external transmission of data to or from the vehicle · CPC title

• B60W2556/65

  Data transmitted between vehicles · CPC title

• B60W2556/50

  of positioning data, e.g. GPS [Global Positioning System] data · CPC title

• B60W2050/0095

  Automatic control mode change · CPC title