Handover notification arrangement, a vehicle and a method of providing a handover notification

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10606263-B2
Application number	US-201715483181-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 10, 2017
Priority date	Apr 15, 2016
Publication date	Mar 31, 2020
Grant date	Mar 31, 2020

Abstract

A handover notification arrangement is configured to provide a handover notification in a driver environment of a vehicle having autonomous driving capabilities. The handover notification arrangement includes a road information arrangement configured to acquire road information representative of an upcoming road section at which the autonomous driving is likely to become at least partially disabled. The handover notification arrangement further includes a processing unit configured to calculate an estimated time available for autonomous driving and configured to calculate an uncertainty estimate of the estimated time available for autonomous driving. The handover notification arrangement is configured to cause the output unit to provide the handover notification such that the handover notification is provided earlier in cases of high uncertainty estimates than in cases of low uncertainty estimates. The present disclosure also describes a vehicle and a method of providing a handover notification.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A handover notification arrangement configured to provide a handover notification in a driver environment of a vehicle having autonomous driving capabilities by means of an autonomous vehicle control arrangement, where the handover notification constitutes a notification concerning an upcoming handover from an autonomous driving mode to a manual driving mode of the vehicle, the handover notification arrangement comprising:
an output unit configured to selectively provide the handover notification;
a positioning arrangement configured to provide map data representative of at least a road section in front of the vehicle, and a current position of the vehicle;
a road information arrangement configured to acquire road information representative of an upcoming road section at which the autonomous vehicle control arrangement will become at least partially unable to perform autonomous driving of the vehicle, and configured to acquire road condition information representative of a road condition at the road section;
a processing unit configured to calculate an estimated average speed on the road section based on the road condition information, and further configured to calculate an estimated time available for autonomous driving based on the estimated average speed and a remaining distance from the current position of the vehicle to the upcoming road section;
wherein the processing unit further is configured to calculate an uncertainty estimate of the estimated time available for autonomous driving based on the estimated average speed, wherein the uncertainty estimate increases for estimated average speeds below a speed threshold, and where the handover notification arrangement is configured to cause the output unit to provide the handover notification in dependence of the uncertainty estimate, wherein the handover notification is provided earlier in response to uncertainty estimates above an uncertainty threshold than in response to uncertainty estimates below the uncertainty threshold.

2. The arrangement of claim 1 wherein the road condition information further comprises at least one of a level of congestion at the road section, average speeds of vehicles travelling on the road section, historic average speeds of vehicles having travelled on the road section and speed limits at the road section.

3. The arrangement of claim 1 wherein the road condition information further comprises average speeds of vehicles travelling on the road section and speed limits at the road section, wherein the processing unit further is configured to calculate the uncertainty estimate based on a comparison between the average speeds of vehicles travelling on the road section, and speed limits at the road section, wherein the uncertainty estimate increases for average speeds of vehicles travelling on the road section being below the speed limits at the road section, and wherein the uncertainty estimate decreases for average speeds of vehicles travelling on the road section being above the speed limits at the road section.

4. The arrangement of claim 1 wherein the output unit is configured to, in response to the uncertainty estimate being below a predetermined value, provide the handover notification by outputting the estimated time available for autonomous driving, and in response to the uncertainty estimate being above the predetermined value, provide the handover notification by outputting a static approximate time to reaching the upcoming road section based on the estimated time available for autonomous driving and the uncertainty estimate.

5. The arrangement of claim 1 wherein the output unit is configured to, in response to the uncertainty estimate being below a predetermined value, provide the handover notification by outputting the estimated time available for autonomous driving, and in response to the uncertainty estimate being above the predetermined value, provide the handover notification by outputting the remaining distance to the upcoming road section.

6. The arrangement of claim 1 wherein the output unit comprises a display unit configured to provide the handover notification by performing a switch of displayed content on the display unit.

7. A vehicle comprising a handover notification arrangement according to claim 1 .

8. The arrangement of claim 1 wherein the road condition information comprises a weather condition and/or a light condition at the road section and the processing unit is configured to calculate the uncertainty estimate for the time available for autonomous driving wherein the uncertainty estimate increases in response to the weather and/or light condition having a value below an associated threshold, and decreases in response to the weather and/or light condition having a value above the associated threshold.

9. A method of providing a handover notification in a driver environment of a vehicle having autonomous driving capabilities by means of an autonomous vehicle control arrangement, where the handover notification constitutes a notification concerning an upcoming handover from an autonomous driving mode to a manual driving mode of the vehicle, using a handover notification arrangement comprising an output unit configured to selectively provide the handover notification, a positioning arrangement, a road information arrangement and a processing unit, the method comprising:
providing map data representative of at least a road section in front of the vehicle and a current position of the vehicle, using the positioning arrangement;
acquiring road information representative of an upcoming road section at which the autonomous vehicle control arrangement will become at least partially unable to perform the autonomous driving of the vehicle, using the road information unit;
acquiring road condition information representative of a road condition at the road section, using the road information arrangement;
calculating an estimated average speed on the road section based on the road condition information, using the processing unit;
calculating an estimated time available for autonomous driving based on the estimated average speed and a remaining distance from the current position of the vehicle to the upcoming road section, using the processing unit;
calculating an uncertainty estimate of the estimated time available for autonomous driving based on the estimated average speed wherein the uncertainty estimate increases for estimated average speeds below a speed threshold, using the processing unit; and
causing the output unit to provide the handover notification in dependence of the uncertainty estimate, wherein the handover notification is provided earlier in response to uncertainty estimates above an uncertainty threshold than in response to uncertainty estimates below the uncertainty threshold, using the handover notification arrangement.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the road condition information further comprises average speeds of vehicles travelling on the road section and speed limits at the road section, wherein the method further comprises:
calculating, using the processing unit, the uncertainty estimate based on a comparison between the average speeds of vehicles travelling on the road section, and speed limits at the road section, wherein the uncertainty estimate increases for average speeds of vehicles travelling on the road section being below the speed limits at the road section, and wherein the uncertainty estimate decreases for average speeds of vehicles travelling on the road section being above the speed limits at the road section.

11. The method of claim 9 further comprising:
providing the handover notification by outputting the estimated time available

Assignees

• Volvo Car Corp

Inventors

• Harda Peter
• Jessen Per
• Christoffersson Joakim

Classifications

• B60W50/14 Primary

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

• B60W40/00

  Estimation or calculation of {non-directly measurable} driving parameters for road vehicle drive control systems not related to the control of a particular sub unit, {e.g. by using mathematical models} · CPC title

• B60W2556/50

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

• B60W2554/00

  Input parameters relating to objects · CPC title

• B60W2555/60

  Traffic rules, e.g. speed limits or right of way · CPC title