Autonomous driving system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11279360-B2
Application number	US-201916502581-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 3, 2019
Priority date	Aug 28, 2018
Publication date	Mar 22, 2022
Grant date	Mar 22, 2022

Abstract

An autonomous driving system includes an information acquiring device configured to acquire driving environment information and a travelling control device configured to execute lane change control from a first lane to a second lane during autonomous driving based on the driving environment information. The travelling control device is configured to perform a continuation determining process of determining whether to continue the lane change control based on a combination of a progress level and an influence level when a subsequent vehicle in the second lane is detected based on the driving environment information and a stop request for execution of the lane change control is detected after execution of the lane change control has started. The progress level represents progress of the lane change control and the influence level represents a predicted degree of influence of continuing the lane change control on the subsequent vehicle.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An autonomous driving system which is mounted in a vehicle, the autonomous driving system configured to:
acquire driving environment information indicating a driving environment of the vehicle;
execute, based on the driving environment information, lane change control from a first lane to a second lane during autonomous driving; and
perform a continuation determining process of determining whether to continue the lane change control based on a combination of a progress level and an influence level when a subsequent vehicle in the second lane is detected based on the driving environment information and a stop request for execution of the lane change control is detected after execution of the lane change control has started, wherein

the progress level represents progress of the lane change control,
the influence level represents a degree of influence of continuing the lane change control on the subsequent vehicle, and
the influence level is set in advance depending on a type of the stop request, and
wherein:
the autonomous driving system is configured to perform a progress level determining process of determining the progress level in the continuation determining process;
in the progress level determining process, the autonomous driving system is configured to
determine that the progress level is a first progress level when a relative position of the vehicle with respect to a reference line between the first lane and the second lane is on the first lane side, and
determine that the progress level is a second progress level when the relative position is on the second lane side; and

in the continuation determining process, the autonomous driving system is configured to
determine not to continue the lane change control regardless of the progress level when the influence level is a third influence level,
determine to continue the lane change control regardless of the progress level when the influence level is a first influence level,
determine not to continue the lane change control when the influence level is a second influence level and it is determined that the progress level is the first progress level, and
determine to continue the lane change control when the influence level is the second influence level and it is determined that the progress level is the second progress level, the first influence level being lower than the second influence level, and the second influence level being lower than the third influence level.

2. The autonomous driving system according to claim 1 , wherein:
in the progress level determining process, the autonomous driving system is configured to
determine that the progress level is the first progress level when an elapsed time after execution of the lane change control has started is less than a threshold value, and
determine that the progress level is the second progress level when the elapsed time is greater than the threshold value.

3. The autonomous driving system according to claim 1 , wherein
in the progress level determining process, the autonomous driving system is configured to
determine that the progress level is the first progress level when a travelling distance of the vehicle after execution of the lane change control has started is less than a threshold value, and
determine that the progress level is the second progress level when the travelling distance is greater than the threshold value.

4. The autonomous driving system according to claim 1 , wherein
in the progress level determining process, the autonomous driving system is configured to
determine that the progress level is the first progress level when a relative position of the vehicle with respect to a reference line between the first lane and the second lane is on the first lane side, and
determine that the progress level is the second progress level when the relative position is on the second lane side; and

in the continuation determining process, the autonomous driving system is configured to
determine whether to continue the lane change control based on the progress level when the influence level is the first influence level, and
determine whether to continue the lane change control based on the influence level when the influence level is the second influence level.

5. An autonomous driving system which is mounted in a vehicle, the autonomous driving system configured to:
acquire driving environment information indicating a driving environment of the vehicle;
execute, based on the driving environment information, lane change control from a first lane to a second lane during autonomous driving; and
perform a continuation determining process of determining whether to continue the lane change control based on a combination of a progress level and an influence level when a subsequent vehicle in the second lane is detected based on the driving environment information and a stop request for execution of the lane change control is detected after execution of the lane change control has started, wherein
the progress level represents progress of the lane change control,
the influence level represents a degree of influence of continuing the lane change control on the subsequent vehicle,
the influence level is set in advance depending on a type of the stop request, and
the influence level includes a first influence level and a second influence level, and a degree of influence on the subsequent vehicle at the second influence level is higher than that at the first influence level.

Assignees

• Toyota Motor Co Ltd

Inventors

• Fukuda Hiroki
• Fujii Shota

Classifications

• B60W30/0956 Primary

  the prediction being responsive to traffic or environmental parameters · CPC title

• G06V20/58

  Recognition of moving objects or obstacles, e.g. vehicles or pedestrians; Recognition of traffic objects, e.g. traffic signs, traffic lights or roads · CPC title

• B60W60/001

  Planning or execution of driving tasks · CPC title

• G06V20/584

  of vehicle lights or traffic lights · CPC title

• B60W30/18163 Primary

  Lane change; Overtaking manoeuvres · CPC title