Systems and methods for intelligently controlling and disengaging vehicle creep

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10597035-B2
Application number	US-201715662651-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 28, 2017
Priority date	Jul 29, 2016
Publication date	Mar 24, 2020
Grant date	Mar 24, 2020

Abstract

A system for intelligently disengaging vehicle creep, the system comprising one or more sensors configured to be operatively coupled with a vehicle, one or more processors configured to execute machine-readable instructions to obtain information from one or more of the sensors, compare obtained information with reference information, determine whether a creep disengaging condition has been satisfied based on the obtained information and the reference information, and disengage a creep function of the vehicle if it is determined that a creep disengaging condition has been satisfied. In some embodiments, the system disengages a vehicle's creep functionality when it is determined that the driver has exited the vehicle.

First claim

I claim:

1. A system for intelligently controlling a vehicle creep function of a vehicle, the system comprising:
one or more sensors configured to be operatively coupled with the vehicle;
one or more processors on the vehicle and configured to execute machine-readable instructions to:
obtain information from one or more of the sensors;
compare obtained information with reference information, the reference information including a predetermined driver profile;
determine whether a creep disengaging condition has been satisfied based on the comparison result, including determining that a person on a driver seat of the vehicle is related to the driver profile, and determining that a creep disengaging condition has been satisfied if the driver profile indicates a preference to disengage the creep function of the vehicle;
disengage the creep function of the vehicle if it is determined that a creep disengaging condition has been satisfied.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more sensors include one or more of the following: a pressure sensor, a camera, a force sensor, a temperature sensor, a heat sensor, a proximity sensor, a chemical sensor, a light sensor, a near field communication (NFC) sensor, a radio frequency (RF) sensor, a biometric sensor, a motion sensor, or a sound sensor.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more sensors include a load sensor on a driver seat of the vehicle.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more sensors include a motion sensor on a vehicle door.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more sensors include a camera coupled to a vehicle rear-view mirror.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more sensors include a sensor coupled to a vehicle safety-belt.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein to determine whether a creep disengaging condition has been satisfied includes to determine if a person is in a driver seat of the vehicle.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein to determine whether a creep disengaging condition has been satisfied includes to determine if a person in a driver seat of the vehicle is a child.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein to determine whether a creep disengaging condition has been satisfied includes to determine if a person is in the vehicle.

10. The system of claim 1 , wherein to determine whether a creep disengaging condition has been satisfied includes to determine an identity of the person on the driver seat of the vehicle.

11. The system of claim 1 , wherein to determine whether a creep disengaging condition has been satisfied includes to determine that a creep disengaging condition has not been satisfied if the driver profile indicates a preferred non-zero speed of the creep function of the vehicle; and the machine-readable instructions further include instructions to control the speed of the creep function of the vehicle based on the preferred non-zero speed indicated in the driver profile.

12. A method for intelligently controlling a vehicle creep function of a vehicle, comprising:
obtaining information from one or more sensors configured to be operatively coupled with the vehicle;
comparing the obtained information with reference information, the reference information including a predetermined driver profile;
determining whether a creep disengaging condition has been satisfied based on the obtained information and the reference information, including determining that a person on a driver seat of the vehicle is related to the driver profile, and determining that a creep disengaging condition has been satisfied if the driver profile indicates a preference to disengage the creep function of the vehicle;
disengaging the creep function of the vehicle if it is determined that a creep disengaging condition has been satisfied.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the one or more sensors include one or more of the following: a pressure sensor, a camera, a force sensor, a temperature sensor, a heat sensor, a proximity sensor, a chemical sensor, a light sensor, a near field communication (NFC) sensor, a radio frequency (RF) sensor, a biometric sensor, a motion sensor, or a sound sensor.

14. The method of claim 12 , wherein the one or more sensors include a load sensor on a driver seat of the vehicle.

15. The method of claim 12 , wherein one or more sensors include a camera coupled to a vehicle rear-view mirror.

16. The method of claim 12 , wherein the one or more sensors include a sensor coupled to a vehicle safety-belt.

17. The method of claim 12 , wherein determining whether a creep disengaging condition has been satisfied includes determining if a person is in the vehicle.

18. The method of claim 12 , wherein determining whether a creep disengaging condition has been satisfied includes determining if a person is in the driver seat of the vehicle.

19. The method of claim 12 , wherein determining whether a creep disengaging condition has been satisfied includes determining an identity of the person in the driver seat of the vehicle.

20. The method of claim 12 , wherein determining whether a creep disengaging condition has been satisfied includes to determining that a creep disengaging condition has not been satisfied if the driver profile indicates a preferred non-zero speed of the creep function of the vehicle; and wherein the method further comprises controlling the speed of the creep function of the vehicle based on the preferred non-zero speed indicated in the driver profile.

21. A vehicle system comprising:
one or more sensors configured to be operatively coupled with a vehicle;
one or more processors on the vehicle configured to execute machine-readable instructions to:
obtain information from one or more of the sensors;
determine whether a creep disengaging condition has been satisfied based on the obtained information including determining that a person on a driver seat of the vehicle is related to a predetermined driver profile, and determining that a creep disengaging condition has been satisfied if the driver profile indicates a preference to disengage a creep function of the vehicle; and
disengage the creep function of the vehicle if it is determined that a creep disengaging condition has been satisfied.

Assignees

• Faraday&Future Inc
• Faraday & Future Inc

Inventors

• Weicker Phillip John

Classifications

• B60W30/18063 Primary

  Creeping · CPC title

• B60W2040/0881

  Seat occupation; Driver or passenger presence · CPC title

• B60W2040/0809

  Driver authorisation; Driver identity check · CPC title

• G06K9/00838

  Physics · mapped topic

• B60N2/002

  Seats provided with an occupancy detection means mounted therein or thereon (detection means responsive to presence or absence of children B60N2/266) · CPC title