Apparatus to enable user driven range and feature selection

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11001272-B2
Application number	US-201916267965-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 5, 2019
Priority date	Feb 5, 2019
Publication date	May 11, 2021
Grant date	May 11, 2021

Abstract

A method for controlling a vehicle includes: receiving, by a controller, route data, wherein the route data is continuously updated while the vehicle is moving, and the vehicle includes a plurality of vehicle operating modes; receiving, by the controller, feature data, wherein the feature data is information about a plurality of features needed for each of the plurality of vehicle operating modes; determining, by the controller, a plurality of ranges for each of the plurality of vehicle operating modes, wherein each of the plurality of ranges is a function of the route data and the feature data for each of the plurality of vehicle operating modes; and commanding, by the controller, a user interface to display a list of range-mode combinations, wherein the list of range-mode combinations includes the plurality of ranges for each of the plurality of vehicle operating modes.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for controlling a vehicle, comprising:
receiving, by a controller, route data, wherein the route data is continuously updated while the vehicle is moving, and the vehicle includes a plurality of vehicle operating modes;
receiving, by the controller, feature data, wherein the feature data is information about a plurality of features needed for each of the plurality of vehicle operating modes;
determining, by the controller, a plurality of ranges for each of the plurality of vehicle operating modes, wherein each of the plurality of ranges is a function of the route data and the feature data for each of the plurality of vehicle operating modes;
commanding, by the controller, a user interface to display a list of range-mode combinations, wherein the list of range-mode combinations includes the plurality of ranges for each of the plurality of vehicle operating modes; and
receiving, by the controller, a user input through the user interface, wherein the user input is a selection made by a user of the vehicle that is indicative of a selected range-mode combination of the list of range-mode combinations, and the selected range-mode combination includes a selected range and a selected vehicle operating mode;
wherein the controller is part of a control system, the control system includes a plurality of devices, each of the plurality of devices is an electric hardware component that consumes electric power, the plurality of devices is selected from a group consisting of a central processing unit, a graphics processing unit, and a field-programmable gate array, the plurality of devices includes a plurality of irrelevant devices and a plurality of relevant devices for each of the plurality of vehicle operating modes, the plurality of irrelevant devices do not need to be active for a respective one of the plurality of vehicle operating modes, and the plurality of relevant devices needs to be active for the respective one of the plurality of vehicle operating modes.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising deactivating, by the controller, the plurality of irrelevant devices for the selected vehicle operating mode in response to receiving the user input through the user interface to minimize usage of computational resources of the vehicle.

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising determining, by the controller, the plurality of irrelevant devices for the selected vehicle operating mode before deactivating the plurality of irrelevant devices.

4. The method of claim 3 , further comprising adjusting a power supply of at least one of the plurality of relevant devices for the selected vehicle operating mode to minimize power consumption in response to receiving the user input through the user interface to minimize power consumption.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein deactivating a plurality of irrelevant devices includes deactivating modules, each of the modules includes the plurality of devices, and the method further includes determining which modules to deactivate using the following equations:

N
=

min
⁢


M


:

M
⁢

{

M
i

}

∑

f
∈
feature

⁢

U
⁡

(
d
)

≤

∑

i
=
1

N

⁢

M
i

⁡

(
d
)

:

d
∈

{

cpu
,
gpu
,
fpga
,
mem

}

where:
f is a set of features required for the selected vehicle operating mode SVOM
N represents a minimum number of modules needed for a feature f needed to enable the selected vehicle operating mode SVOM
M is a set of all modules
d represents devices inside one of the modules
U is a computing workload that the feature f introduced on device d.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein a power consumption of each module is calculated using the following equation:
P=C 1 ·V 2 +C 2 ·F·V 2
where:
C 1 is a first constant determined by physical characteristics of a device d
C 2 is a second constant determined by physical characteristics of the device d
V is a voltage of the device d
F is a frequency of the device d
P is power consumed by a module M.

7. A vehicle, comprising:
a control system including a controller;
a sensor system in electric communication with the controller, wherein the sensor system includes a plurality of sensor devices, and the plurality of sensor devices includes an optical camera and Global Positioning System (GPS) transceiver;
a user interface configured to receive user inputs;
wherein the controller is programmed to:
receive route data, wherein the route data is continuously updated while the vehicle is moving, and the vehicle includes a plurality of vehicle operating modes;
receive feature data, wherein the feature data is information about a plurality of features needed for each of the plurality of vehicle operating modes;
determine a plurality of ranges for each of the plurality of vehicle operating modes, wherein each of the plurality of ranges is a function of the route data and the feature data for each of the plurality of vehicle operating modes;
command a user interface to display a list of range-mode combinations, wherein the list of range-mode combinations includes the plurality of ranges for each of the plurality of vehicle operating modes;

wherein the controller is programmed to receive a user input through the user interface, the user input is a selection made by a user of the vehicle that is indicative of a selected range-mode combination of the list of range-mode combinations, and the selected range-mode combination includes a selected range and a selected vehicle operating mode;
wherein the control system includes a plurality of devices, each of the plurality of devices is an electric hardware component that consumes electric power, the plurality of devices is selected from a group consisting of a central processing unit, a graphics processing unit, and a field

Assignees

• Gm Global Tech Operations Llc

Inventors

• Dutta Bordoloi Unmesh
• Wang Shige
• Du Xinyu

Classifications

• B60W50/085

  Changing the parameters of the control units, e.g. changing limit values, working points by control input · CPC title

• B60W50/14

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

• G01C21/34

  Route searching; Route guidance · CPC title

• B60W10/30

  including control of auxiliary equipment, e.g. air-conditioning compressors or oil pumps · CPC title

• B60W2050/146

  Display means · CPC title