Notification device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10857939-B2
Application number	US-201916594511-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 7, 2019
Priority date	Oct 10, 2018
Publication date	Dec 8, 2020
Grant date	Dec 8, 2020

Abstract

A notification device includes a calculation unit calculating, based on a speed of a vehicle, a vehicle stoppage distance by which the vehicle travels until the vehicle enters a stopped state while performing autonomous driving, a notification unit performing notification about information with respect to an outside of the vehicle, and a notification controller causing the notification unit not to perform notification about information indicating that the vehicle is in the middle of deceleration until the vehicle passes by a first soon-to-cross pedestrian and to cause the notification unit to perform notification about the information after the vehicle passes by the first soon-to-cross pedestrian when a distance between the vehicle and the first soon-to-cross pedestrian is smaller than the vehicle stoppage distance and a distance between the vehicle and a second soon-to-cross pedestrian is equal to or greater than the vehicle stoppage distance.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A notification device provided in a vehicle performing autonomous driving and configured to notify pedestrians of information, the device comprising:
an electronic control unit configured to:
recognize, based on a result of detection performed by an external sensor, positions of the pedestrians in front of a roadway on which the vehicle travels;
determine, based on a distance between the positions of the pedestrians recognized by the electronic control unit and a road on which the vehicle travels, whether the pedestrians are soon-to-cross pedestrians;
calculate, based on a speed of the vehicle during autonomous driving, a vehicle stoppage distance by which the vehicle travels until the vehicle enters a stopped state while performing autonomous driving when the electronic control unit determines that the pedestrians are the soon-to-cross pedestrians; and
determine the information based on the vehicle stoppage distance calculated by the electronic control unit, a position of the vehicle, and the positions of the soon-to-cross pedestrians and to cause a display unit to perform notification about the determined information; and
the display unit provided in the vehicle and configured to perform notification about the information with respect to an outside of the vehicle; and
wherein the soon-to-cross pedestrians include a first soon-to-cross pedestrian and a second soon-to-cross pedestrian positioned ahead of the first soon-to-cross pedestrian in a proceeding direction of the vehicle, and
the electronic control unit is configured to cause the display unit not to perform notification about information indicating that the vehicle is in the middle of deceleration until the vehicle passes by the first soon-to-cross pedestrian and to cause the display unit to perform notification about information indicating that the vehicle is in the middle of deceleration after the vehicle passes by the first soon-to-cross pedestrian when a distance between the vehicle and the first soon-to-cross pedestrian is smaller than the vehicle stoppage distance and a distance between the vehicle and the second soon-to-cross pedestrian is equal to or greater than the vehicle stoppage distance.

2. The notification device according to claim 1 ,
wherein the electronic control unit is configured to cause the display unit to perform notification about information indicating passage of the vehicle until the vehicle passes by the first soon-to-cross pedestrian.

3. The notification device according to claim 1 , wherein the electronic control unit is configured to:
determine whether the vehicle is in a stopped state, and
change information, about which the display unit performs notification, from information indicating that the vehicle is in the middle of deceleration to information indicating that the vehicle is in the stopped state when the electronic control unit determines that the vehicle is in the stopped state.

4. The notification device according to claim 1 ,
wherein the display unit is configured to display the information as notification about the information, and
the electronic control unit is configured to control a displaying operation of the display unit.

Assignees

• Toyota Motor Co Ltd

Inventors

• Morimura Junichi

Classifications

• B60Q1/525 Primary

  automatically indicating risk of collision between vehicles in traffic or with pedestrians, e.g. after risk assessment using the vehicle sensor data · CPC title

• B60Q1/442 Primary

  visible on the front side of the vehicle, e.g. for pedestrians · CPC title

• B60Q1/507

  specific to autonomous vehicles · CPC title

• G08G1/166

  for active traffic, e.g. moving vehicles, pedestrians, bikes · CPC title

• G08G1/005

  including pedestrian guidance indicator · CPC title